
Class. 



BookiAa^ia 



GoBTighiN". 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



MOUNT DESERT 



MOUNT DESERT 

By GEORGE E. STREET 



EDITED BY SAMUEL A. ELIOT 

WITH A MEMORIAL INTEODUCTION BY 
WILBERT L. ANDERSON 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

vCKje iRiter^itie pre??*, Cambribge 

1905 



'iRKARY or ;WJ8HF.'siT| 
Iwi/ Copies rtowJiv-M 

S£P, 1 190!-' 

fiO(jyru?(i'. tiiu" 

GUo93t '9o^ 

COPY b. 






COPYRIGHT 1905 BY MARY A. STREET 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



Published September iqoj 



CONTENTS 



CHAP, PAGE 

Memoir of Dr. Street, hy Wilbert L. Anderson xi 

Editor's Preface, by Samuel A. Eliot , . xvii 

I. Saint Croix 1 

II. Saint Sauveur 31 

III. Pemetic 57 

IV. The Tory and Refugee Proprietors . 101 
V. Mount Desert Plantation .... 137 

VI. Mount Desert Townships .... 183 

VII. Mount Desert Churches .... 227 

Vni. Social and Industrial Conditions . . 281 

IX. The Summer Colonies 321 

Bibliographical Notes .... 347 

Index 361 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FAOE 

Samuel de Champlain .... Frontispiece 

Dr. George E. Street ix 

Map of Mount Desert 1 

Henry IV 6 

Due DE Sully 12 

Title of De Monts's Commissions .... 14/ 

Title of Champlain's Book 20 

Madame de Guercheville 36 ' 

Otter Cliff 40 

Fernald's Point (from Greening's Island) . .44^ 

Manchester's Point 66 ' 

Bear Island 82' 

Cadillac's Harbor (from Bear Island) . . 82 

SiEUR D'Iberville 86 

At Ship Harbor 98 - 

Facsimile of a Latin Description .... 114 

Plan of Governor Bernard's Town Site . . 118 

Facsimile of a De Gregoire Deed .... 134 

Somes Sound 144 

Seal Cove .- . . . 150 

Entrance to Bar Harbor .... 190 



Vlll 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



somesville 

At Norwood's Cove .... 
Bishop Davis Wasgatt Clark . 
Congregational Church, Seal Harbor 
Unitarian Church, Bar Harbor 
Union Church, Northeast Harbor 
Episcopal Church, Northeast Harbor 

Eben M. Hamor 

First Hotel at Bar Harbor 
First Cottage at Bar Harbor 
From Sargent's Mountain . 
Northeast Harbor .... 



190 
216 
248 
262 
262 
276 
276 
302 
334 
334 
340 
340 



GEORGE EDWARD STREET 

For a quarter of a century Dr. Street passed his 
summer vacations at Southwest Harbor. With 
dehghtful enthusiasm he was wont to speak o£ 
the beauty of this favored spot, the tonic of its 
breezes, the charm of its people, the wealth of its 
traditions. Having a genius for acquaintance, 
he easily came to know many of the permanent 
residents of Mount Desert and the surrounding 
islands, and to count among his friends many of 
those who return to this popular resort season after 
season. His sympathetic and active mind quickly 
appropriated whatever was of interest in the place, 
and as eagerly gathered up suggestions for local 
betterment. One who knew Dr. Street well per- 
ceives why and how he organized the Southwest 
Village Improvement Society, and for what reason 
he was chosen to serve as its president, for he had 
an untiring interest in devising plans for public 
improvement and for the intellectual and moral 
development of communities. It is equally easy to 
understand how Dr. Street became the historian of 
Mount Desert, for an ancient legend was as dear 
to him as schemes of social advancement were 
fascinating. His was the enthusiasm to run down 
every item of knowledge, to give every man, 



X GEORGE EDWARD STREET 

whether famous or obscure, his full significance, 
and to discern the ideal though dull masses of 
detail. 

The man who preserves the memory of others 
ought himself to be known. George Edward 
Street was born in Cheshire, Conn., June 18, 
1835. His father was Col. Thaddeus Street, a 
descendant of the Rev. Nicholas Street, colleague 
and successor of the Rev. John Davenport, 
founder and minister of New Haven, Conn. On 
the side of his mother, Martha Davenport Rey- 
nolds, his ancestry was equally distinguished, the 
Rev. John Davenport and Governor Roger Wol- 
cott being among those from whom descent was 
traced. A nature open to culture, inclined toward 
public affairs, and adapted to the work of a cler- 
gyman, was the heritage of this well-born boy. 
The schools and the academy of Cheshire gave him 
his preparation for his college course, which he 
completed at Yale in 1858. Two years of teaching 
in Stonington, Conn., followed. In 1860 he en- 
tered Andover Theological Seminary and gradu- 
ated three years later. This was the day of great 
teachers at Andover, — Stowe, Phelps, Park were 
there. In a tribute to Professor Park, Dr. Street 
himself wrote : " But for the sickening reports 
from the seat of war, our middle year would have 
been a succession of delights, as we came into 
close range of our great professor in the lecture- 
room. As it was, he turned the war into a fertile 



GEORGE EDWARD STREET xi 

source of illustrations of the sublime themes he 
handled." Under such influences as these, one 
inclined toward patriotism and philanthropy had 
an easy choice. Mr. Street served in the Christian 
Commission, mainly at Potomac Creek and Stone- 
man's Switch, near Fredericksburg, Va., from 
February to April, 1863. The chaplaincy of the 
Sixty-third Pennsylvania Infantry was offered 
him, but an attack of diphtheria prevented his 
accepting it. 

Mr. Street was ordained, April 6, 1864, as pas- 
tor of the Congregational Church in Wiscasset, 
Me. Doubtless his interest in the history of the 
Maine coast dates from his life in this little sea- 
port. After nearly eight years of service there, 
he was called to the pastorate of the Second Con- 
gregational Church in Exeter, N. H., and was in- 
stalled March 30, 1871. This position he held 
until December 31, 1899, when broken health 
compelled the surrender of the office, whose duties 
had been shared for some years by an associate 
pastor. He was pastor emeritus of this church 
until his death. His long and successful service 
and his personal worth were recognized by the 
degree of doctor of divinity, conferred by Dart- 
mouth College, June 29, 1900. He habitually 
attended the important conferences of his denom- 
ination. He was ever a strong supporter of mis- 
sions at home and abroad, and from October 14, 
1897, he served as a corporate member of the 



xii GEORGE EDWARD STREET 

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions. Many of his memorial and historical 
sermons and addresses were published. 

The life of Dr. Street was greatly enriched by 
his union in marriage with Mary Evarts Ander- 
son, who received a fine inheritance of character 
and a rare training for her position in the church, 
as the daughter of the Rev. Rufus Anderson, 
D. D., for more than a third of a century corre- 
sponding secretary of the American Board of 
Foreign Missions. A son born of this marriage 
is in business in Boston, and a daughter is the 
wife of the Rev. William W. Ranney of Hart- 
ford, Conn. Two daughters died in childhood. 
It was the hope of his friends that Dr. Street 
would never give up his residence in Exeter, but 
he found it necessary to escape the rigorous win- 
ters of New Hampshire. Upon the marriage of 
his daughter the home, which he had occupied 
for brief periods only in the later years, was 
broken up. Death came suddenly two months 
later; he died of angina pectoris in Hartford, 
December 26, 1903. His grave, as is most fitting, 
is in Exeter. 

The bare chronicle of the life of Dr. Street is 
a far too meagre showing, for such a man could 
not pass through the ordinary routine of experi- 
ence without transforming it. His fine presence 
and courtly manner gave him distinction in any 
society, and his broad culture and knowledge of 



GEORGE EDWARD STREET xiii 

the world, enriched by extensive travel in his own 
country and in foreign lands, sustained the im- 
pression. His quick sympathy and his deep in- 
terest in men of many kinds won a host of friends 
among his townsmen and in the world at large. 
As a pastor he illustrated the higher ideals of a 
spiritual leader, preaching the gospel simply and 
earnestly, and training his church in Christian 
service and benevolence. At the same time he 
had the impulses of a reformer, and again and 
again he took his place in front of the battle 
line. He was indefatigable in his efforts for tem- 
perance, and from him came the incentive that 
finally drove the saloons from Exeter. He was 
an agitator for parks, and better streets, and 
every public improvement. The beautiful house 
of worship erected by his parish was his concep- 
tion. Phillips Exeter Academy was ever in his 
mind, and over many of its students he exerted 
a formative influence. Enthusiasm for all good 
causes came to him by instinct, but the preaching 
passion was strongest in his soul. When failing 
health took him from the pulpit, he bore the trial 
with Christian resignation, yet he often remarked 
that he felt the uprising in his heart of a message 
that his physical strength was not competent to 
utter. At such times one discerned how hard it 
was for this alert and eager mind to accept the 
restraint upon its activity. 

A period of rest so far restored his health that 



xiv GEOKGE EDWARD STREET 

he was able to make the preparations for writing 
this history of Mount Desert. It gave him plea- 
sant employment, concentrated the energy that 
could not brook idleness, gratified his love for a 
locality that he had adopted with all his heart, 
and rounded out his life with fitting labors. May 
it keep his memory green in the place where he 
spent his holidays ; the community in which he 
wrought at his life task has other monuments to 
keep the remembrance of him alive. 

WiLBERT L. Anderson. 



EDITOR'S PREFACE 

The work of collecting the material for this 
book occupied the leisure of a busy and useful 
life for a considerable period. Dr. Street pos- 
sessed a lively historical interest, and the scenery 
and associations of his summer home were greatly 
endeared to him. In the vacation intervals, Dr. 
Street talked with winsome enthusiasm with the 
representatives of the families longest settled on 
the island or with summer residents interested 
in his project. Happy in the sympathy and aid 
of his wife and daughter, he gathered references, 
collected photographs, and persuaded his neigh- 
bors to open to him their stores of local know- 
ledge. In the winter evenings at Exeter or 
Hartford the notes and papers thus gathered 
were arranged and copied by the united indus- 
try of Dr. and Mrs. Street. Dr. Street hoped to 
have the book in readiness for the three hun- 
dredth anniversary of Champlain's discovery of 
the island, which was celebrated in September, 
1904, but sickness came upon him and the task 
he loved lingered. His cheerful courage looked 
eagerly to the day when he could take up the 
work anew, but that day never came. The gen- 
erous confidence of his family intrusted the 



xvi EDITOR'S PREFACE 

incomplete task to another busy man who shared 
Dr. Street's enthusiasm for his summer home, 
and the collected material was placed in my 
hands in the spring of 1904. It has been pre- 
pared for publication with as much promptness 
and care as the limited time at my command has 
permitted. I have ventured to depart from the 
original plan in so far as to make a continuous 
historical narrative out of the separate papers, 
by different authors, which Dr. Street had col- 
lected. The original contributions are thus in- 
corporated in the narrative and due acknow- 
ledgment is made in the notes of the kind 
cooperation of the friends who sent their manu- 
scripts to Dr. Street. Some new material has 
been added and the book enriched by further 
contributions from sources that have only re- 
cently been made available. The merits of this 
book are due to the initiative, the discriminating 
insight, and the patient industry of Dr. Street 
and his family and friends. 

S. A. E. 




H 


" 


Pd 




H 




p of 

DES 
AND 

of Miles 


c, 


t^i 


-r- 


P 


1-^/ 


o 


•S' 




-St 



B A 




1\ 



— 1?^"""°* :: 



1^; 




I 3 



I 

SAINT CROIX 



Flawless bis heart and tempered to the core 
Who, beckoned by the forward-leaning wave, 
First left behind him the firm footed shore, 
And, urged by every nerve of sail and oar, 
Steered for the Unknown. 

Lowell 



SAINT CROIX. 1604 

Do we not too often imagine that there is an 
absence of romance in the early history of our 
native land ? There is a widespread notion that 
the local history of America is commonplace and 
prosaic, if not trivial. No mist of distance ob- 
scures the harsh outlines, no mirage of tradition 
lifts lives and events into importance. Literature 
and art and song have enriched the charm of Old 
World scenes and themes, until our sense of the 
interest and witchery of nearer things has been 
dimmed. Do we not need to shift our historical 
perspective and to realize that there is a charm 
in the records of our own historic past which is 
as entrancing as any in the annals of mankind? 
The hills and fields and islands of New England 
blossom with the sweet flowers of romance as 
richly as any meadows of Old World fame. 

One cause for our feeling that America has a 
prosaic history is that we are wont to begin our 
historical observations with the permanent set- 
tlements of Europeans on these shores, — with 
Jamestown and Plymouth, New Amsterdam and 
Salem. We forget the years of discovery and 
exploration and futile effort at colonization that 
antedate the ultimately successive enterprises. We 
make our history the record of merely material 



4 MOUNT DESERT 

advance, and so the noise of axe and hammer 
drowns out the poetry. Is there not always more 
romance in brave endeavors that fail than in the 
equally brave endeavors that succeed? Shall w^e 
not do well to remind ourselves sometimes of the 
fortitude and zeal of the pioneers before the Pil- 
grims ? 

Again, for the most part we inherit a purely 
English tradition of American history. We for- 
get that the earliest settlements in America were 
not English, but Spanish and French, and there 
is somehow more poetry about the dashing cour- 
tiers of Philip II and Henry of Navarre, about 
the black-robed priests and their adventurous 
companions, than about our grim Puritan fore- 
fathers or about the sturdy traders of New Neth- 
erlands. The oldest permanent settlement on our 
Atlantic coast, St. Augustine, is Spanish in its 
origin, and the two most interesting of the tem- 
porary settlements were made, the one by French 
Huguenots in Florida, and the other by French 
Jesuits in Maine. The ruthless bigotry of Spanish 
Catholics exterminated the Huguenots in Florida, 
and the violence of English Protestants dispersed 
the Jesuits at Mount Desert. 

New England was called New France for fifty 
years before Captain John Smith gave it its pre- 
sent name. Fifteen years before the Mayflower 
came to anchor in Plymouth Harbor its waters 
had been sounded and its outlines drawn by 



SAINT CEOIX 5 

Frenchmen seeking a permanent home. The Pil- 
grims, had they known of it, might have bought, 
ere they sailed, at the little shop o£ Jean Bergon 
in the Rue St. Jean de Beauvais, at the sign of 
the Winged Horse, in Paris, a chart of Plymouth 
Harbor remarkable for its accuracy and skill. 
Twenty-five years before John Winthrop and his 
company landed on the Peninsula where they 
planted Boston, Frenchmen had mapped the bay, 
described its features with surprising fidelity, and 
named its points and rivers. 

It is not within the purpose of this history to 
tell of the exploits of the earlier French voyagers, 
for they only touched along the New England 
shores, and their courses cannot always be accu- 
rately traced. As early as 1524 Verrazano passed 
along our Atlantic coast from Florida to New- 
foundland, and his landfalls in New York Bay, at 
Block Island, at Newport, and several other points 
can be fairly well identified. He wrote the earliest 
description known to exist of the shores of the 
United States. But France, torn with wars, her 
king a captive, her treasury empty, was in no 
mood at that time for transatlantic enterprises, 
and the voyage was fruitless of result. 

Nor does it fall within my purpose to speak of 
the voyages of Jacques Cartier, the discovery of 
the St. Lawrence River, and the efforts toward 
colonization made by Roberval and La Roche. 
These enterprises are but the prelude of the drama 



6 MOUNT DESERT 

of French colonization in America ; a half cen- 
tury of silence rolls between them and the more 
persistent attempts of the later heroes. The New- 
foundland banks were indeed visited every sum- 
mer throughout the sixteenth century by the 
hardy Basque and Breton fishermen. The ports of 
Dieppe and Honfleur alone sent two hundred sail 
of fishing craft annually, and these venturesome 
little vessels may at times have felt their way 
into the harbors of Cape Breton — a name which 
commemorates their visits — or even penetrated 
to the gulf of Maine ; but the fishermen left no 
record of their adventures.^ 

The romantic story of the exploration of our 
hundred-harbored New Engfland shore beg^ins 
when a quaint little vessel, no larger than a fish- 
ing smack of to-day, glided one summer morning 
in 1604 under the frowning crags of the Grand 
Manan and held her way up the river which marks 
to-day the boundary of Maine and New Bruns- 
wick and which thenceforth has borne the name 
of St. Croix. On board this little vessel was an 
organized French colony seeking a permanent 
home. The best and meanest of France were 
crowded on the deck. There were nobles from 
the court of Henry IV and thieves from the 
Paris prisons; there were Catholic priests and 
Huguenot ministers ; there were ruffians who were 
flying from justice, and there were young volun- 

^ See Winsor's Cartier to Frontenac, p. 79. 



SAINT CKOIX 7 

teers of high birth and character. What had led 
these men to tempt the perils of the uncharted 
seas and the unknown wilderness, and what was 
the origin and impulse of their enterprise ? 

One of the motives which stimulated all the 
first adventurers on the American coasts was 
doubtless the hope of material gain. To the 
inquisitive and credulous minds of the men of 
the sixteenth century the New World meant 
Eldorado. The Spaniards in the south were cer- 
tainly spurred to their daring exploits by the 
expectation of finding gold, and their marvelous 
success in securing the treasures of the golden 
kingdoms of Central America stimulated all that 
came after them. Gold mines reported by Indians 
are all the time referred to by early voyagers 
even on the New England shore. The sanguine 
prospectors believed everything they were told, 
about the hidden wealth of the regions they had 
come to explore, and the shivering poverty of 
the naked Indians who were the only inhabit- 
ants of the new-found coasts did not undeceive 
them. 

National rivalry found a place among the 
motives that prompted effort. Was the land of 
boundless wonder and fertility to be abandoned 
to foreigners ? Frenchmen asked themselves if 
their English foes were to outdo them in the New 
World. Englishmen were eager to disprove the 
claim of the Spaniards to the continent by vir- 



8 MOUNT DESERT 

tue of •'' aparohuient signed by an Italian priest." 
Feeling- often van high, and it is well known that 
the adventurers of the ditferent nations, though 
at peace at home, often came to blows in distant 
America. 

Next we should recognize the influence of 
missionary enthusiasm. Even the Spaniards were 
full of desire to convert the Indians, and some of 
their most ruthless tyrannies were undertaken in 
the name of religion. The priests wei-e always 
important figures in the conquering- armies of 
the Spanish in Central America. Most of the 
French adventurers were full of equal religious 
enthusiasm. The story of the Jesuit missions in 
Canada is a marvel of devotion and self-forg-et- 
fulness. The earliest seal of the Massachusetts 
Colony, granted in 1629, shows an Indian, with 
the motto "• Come over and help us." The mis- 
sionary zeal was in large measure kindled by 
the curiosity excited by the Indian captives who 
were brought at various times from America to 
the older lands. Here were people from beyond 
the bounds of Christendom who had never been 
baptized, ** naked slaves of the Devil," as one 
annalist described them. Christian people every- 
where w^ere eager to convert these subjects of 
Satan, not merely from philanthropic motives, 
but also, as we read, '' to spite the Devil." The 
proselyting spirit was sometimes incongruously 
mixed up with the hope of commercial gain, as 



^x( hitV^ A»ui fii^x* \vtV ^^^ki^uutiit^ kvC <mr ^\>iM<*(W 
Bvt^i ih^ oUh'f t»uH\W v(tii« ivi^ IW ^xml tidP 

lUAfv^ ^xt' |Ji^^^ ^hnthh) thii^ <?vx«*t Uu<? xxf AiwwK^ W 
t^iifwrtni .^ Yi!>rY thiw» with btt\^k^ iu if ht^vt* *wvl 

tuu> vxt\ th<» v\>Yi*^v tv> A?4w» v^u*.i u^vi^^tvvr nt'ii^r 
u4iYi^"^*t\xr^H\^hi tW u<^Y^^f^\w^^?-<t^?^^^kYt^^:^l i^limit 
iut\» tht» IVntHV TH*? ho^H» vvt* anuuv^ii* U^HVU ?s\vw^ 
^vxrt out iutv> tW nv*h i\uumorx>? of (ho OrUn^t 
$ttrYivt\l until li»tx^ iu tho ^vuturY. Tlio vjiluo of 
tht> Noxv NWnUl xv»?i duuuit^vl lvt\u\» tlu? ^Wy v^f 
th«? lu«.UtN!t, *rh«» lVit\o YViVjt {ilw»Y?!t jw*t bt^hiwvl 



10 MOUNT DESERT 

the next point. It was a dream that stimulated 
discovery but retarded settlement. 

No better description of these nobler motives 
can be given than that written by one of the 
boldest and most skillful of the seventeenth cen- 
tury navigators, the godfather of New England, 
Captain John Smith. " Who can desire," he 
wrote, " more content than to tread and plant 
the ground he hath purchased by the hazard of 
his life ? If he have but the taste of virtue and 
magnanimity, what to such a mind can be more 
pleasant than planting and building a foundation 
for his posterity, got from the rude earth by 
God's blessing and his own industry? If he 
have any grain of faith or zeal in religion, what 
can he do less hurtful to any or more agreeable 
to God than to seek to convert those poor sav- 
ages to know Christ ? What so truly suits with 
honor as the discovering of things unknown, 
erecting towns, peopling countries, informing the 
ignorant, reforming things unjust, teaching vir- 
tue, and gaining to our mother country a king- 
dom to attend her. Then seeing we are not born 
for ourselves but each to help others, and our 
abilities are much alike at the hour of our birth 
and the minute of our death — seeing honor is 
our life's ambition and our ambition after death 
to have an honorable memory of our life — and 
seeing by no means we would be abated of the 
dignities and glories of our predecessors, let us 



SAINT CROIX 11 

imitate their virtues to be worthily their suc- 
cessors." 

All of these motives, save missionary zeal, were 
of a nature to appeal to the temperament of 
Henry the Fourth of France. The French plans 
of colonization found their impulse in the grasp- 
ing commercialism, the patriotic pride, the chiv- 
alric spirit of that many-sided monarch. The 
origins of the St. Croix colony are connected 
with some of the chief events of his epoch-mak- 
ing reign. Never were the justice and expediency 
of a political measure more promptly vindicated 
than by the effects which followed the sign- 
ing of the Edict of Nantes by Henry on the thir- 
teenth of April, 1598. The publication of this 
royal decree meant nothing less than the speedy 
return of prosperity to France. " In one day," 
says Benoist, " the disasters of forty years were 
repaired." The civil wars had left the country 
in a deplorable condition. Everywhere the traces 
of the long and bitter struggle were to be seen 
in ruined villages and dismantled castles, in farms 
laid waste, and cities impoverished. Under the 
Edict, which secured to the Protestants of France 
the enjoyment of their civil and religious rights, 
public confidence revived, and trade and manu- 
factures began again to flourish. 

For these advantages, the kingdom was largely 
indebted to the statesmanship of the Huguenot 
Due de Sully. It was the good fortune of Henry 



12 MOUNT DESERT 

the Fourth to have for his trusty counselor a 
man of such stanch fidelity and of far-sighted 
wisdom. In administering the affairs of the coun- 
try Sully's principal concern was for the devel- 
opment of its internal resources. He brought a 
rigid economy into all the departments of gov- 
ernment, he rapidly reduced the enormous debt 
which had accumulated during the civil wars; 
and at the same time he sought to encourage 
agriculture as the most assured means of national 
enrichment. By establishing peace and commer- 
cial stability at home, he provided the essential 
foundation for transatlantic adventure. 

Henry shared his minister's views ; but he had 
other plans also, into which Sully did not enter 
so cordially. The king favored foreign commerce 
and colonization. It was his ambition to possess 
a powerful navy, to promote adventure and dis- 
covery and trade with distant lands, and especially 
to carry out the scheme which had originated 
with Coligny, his early teacher and companion 
in arms, for the establishment of a French colony 
in America. The time for this undertaking had 
come at last. 

In the year 1599, Pierre Chauvin, Seigneur de 
Tontuit,^ of Honfleur in Normandy, was commis- 
sioned by Henry to colonize America. Chauvin 

* Nouvelles Glanes historiques Normandes, puisees exclusivement 
dans des documents inedits. Par E. Gosselin, Greffier-Archiviste. 
Rouen, 1873. 




DUG DE SULLY 



SAINT CROIX 13 

was a captain in the royal navy, " very expert 
and well versed in matters of navigation," says 
Champlain.^ Several vessels were equipped, and 
with a considerable force Chauvin embarked and 
headed for the river of St. Lawrence, which 
Jacques Cartier had discovered and named more 
than half a century before. At Tadousac, where 
the Saguenay enters the St. Lawrence, Chauvin 
established a trading- post, and, leaving sixteen 
of his men to gather furs, returned to France. 

The little colony dragged out a miserable ex- 
istence through the winter. Several of the men 
died, and the others were barely kept alive by 
the compassionate savages, who shared with them 
their slender provisions. Chauvin worked hard 
but unsuccessfully to make the settlement per- 
manent, and when about to start upon his third 
voyage he died. In the following year his com- 
mission was transferred to a Roman Catholic 
gentleman, Aymar de Chastes, governor of 
Dieppe. But before the ships he sent out for the 
further exploration of the country returned, De 
Chastes too was dead. 

Henry then turned to one of his most loyal 
friends and commissioned a Huguenot gentleman 
Pierre Du Guast, Sieur de Monts, to possess and 
settle that part of North America lying between 

^ " Homme tres expert et entendu au faiet de la navigation, 
qui avoit servi sa majestd aux guerres pass^es, quoi qu'il fust de 
la religion prdtendue reformde." 



14 MOUNT DESERT 

the 40tli and the 46th degrees of north latitude, 
granting him the title of lieutenant-general in 
New France with vice-regal powers, and giving 
him a monopoly of trade. The king's commis- 
sion was a characteristic document.^ It began by 
setting forth the king's favorite project for the 
enlargement of his dominions. " It has ever 
been," reads the preamble, "our principal con- 
cern and endeavor, since our accession to this 
crown, to maintain and preserve it in its ancient 
dignity, greatness, and splendor, and to spread 
and augment, so far as may be legitimately done, 
the bounds and limits thereof." But there was 
an object of still higher importance to be sought 
in the present enterprise. The king, " having 
long since informed himself of the situation and 
condition of the country and territory of Acadia," 
professed to be " moved above all things by a 
singular zeal, and by a devout and firm resolu- 
tion " which he had taken, " with the help and 
assistance of God, who is the author, distributor, 
and protector of all kingdoms and states, to seek 
the conversion, guidance, and instruction of the 
races that inhabit that country, from their bar- 
barous and godless condition, and to rescue them 
from the ignorance and unbelief in which they 
now lie." For these purposes, secular as well as 

' This commission is printed in the French with an English 
version in the Appendix of Baird's Huguenot Emigration to 
America, i, 341-347. 



7;^ 



COMMISSIONS Dr 

Roy ■^ de Monfeigncurb^dmiraly 

atifieurde MonlSy^our thahi^ 

tat ion es terres de Lacadic 

Canada J e^ apitres en- 

droits en la nouti€l(r 

France, 

Enfemblc Icsdefcnfcs premieres &: fecon- 

des acousautres , de trafiquer auec 

les Sauuages defdiccs terres, 

Kuec U verification en U CourdevMermnta r^n>. 




A PARIS. 
16 oj. 



TITLE OF DE MONTS'S " COMMISSIONS 



..-d 



SAINT CROIX 15 

spiritual, Henry appointed the Sieur de Monts his 
viceroy and authorized him " to subject all the 
peoples of that country and of the surrounding 
parts to our authority ; and by all lawful means 
to lead them to the knowledge of God and to 
the light of the Christian faith and religion, and 
to establish them therein." All other inhabitants 
were to be maintained and protected in the exer- 
cise and profession of the same Christian faith 
and religion, and in peace and tranquillity. Thus 
the foundations of New France were to be laid in 
religious freedom and toleration. If the plan was 
impracticable, it did honor, nevertheless, to the 
heart and mind that prompted and devised the 
Edict of Nantes. 

De Monts associated with himself the members 
of the company which had been organized for 
the conduct of the previous unsuccessful expedi- 
tions ; and they added to their number other 
merchants of the principal seaports of the king- 
dom who engaged in the adventure chiefly in 
hope of gain in the fur-trade. De Monts him- 
self was well fitted to be the leader of the enter- 
prise. He had fought bravely under Henry in 
the late wars, and the king had made him one 
of the gentlemen of his bedchamber, and later 
appointed him governor of Pons in his native 
province of Saintonge. All the early chroniclers 
agree in characterizing him as a man of integrity 
and the purest patriotism. In courage, energy, 



16 MOUNT DESERT 

perseverance, in tact and firmness, he was ad- 
mirably qualified for his mission/ 

De Monts had accompanied Chauvin " for his 
own pleasure " on his first visit to the St. Law- 
rence, and his impressions of the country watered 
by the great river were not favorable. His mind 
turned to the region lying farther to the south 
to which the name of Acadie was first given in 
the king's commission. The winter months were 
spent in getting vessels and stores in readiness. 
De Monts embarked in the larger of his two lit- 
tle ships, one of one hundred and fifty tons, 
the other of one hundred and twenty tons. The 
smaller vessel, commanded by the Sieur du Pont- 
grave, one of the merchant partners who had 
made a voyage to the coast the previous summer, 
followed soon after. The band of adventurers 
numbered about one hundred and twenty per- 
sons. De Monts's commission authorized him to 
impress for his expedition any " vagabonds, idlers, 
or vagrants," as well as any criminals condemned 
to banishment from the realm, whom he might 
see fit to employ. A like permission had been 
given to preceding adventurers, and more than 

1 " Heury IV avoit uue grande confiance (en lui) pour sa fide- 
lit^, comme il a toujours fait paroitre jusques a sa mort." Voyages 
du Champlain, ou Journal es Decouvertes de la Nouvelle France. 

" C'^tolt d'ailleurs un fort honnete homme, et qui avoit de z^le 
pour I'dtat et toute la capacity ndcessaire pour rt^useir dans 
I'enterprise dont il s'^toit charge." Histoire de la Nouvelle France, 
par le P. de Charlevoix, i, 173. 



SAINT CROIX 17 

one of them had availed himself of it. It does 
not appear that the Huguenot leader found it 
necessary to form his entire company out of 
such materials. There went with him men of 
his own creed and severe morality, who were 
drawn by the highest motives into an enterprise 
so romantic and chivalrous.^ Conspicuous among 
these gentlemen were two of De Monts's former 
comrades in the service of Henry of Navarre, 
Jean de Biencourt, Baron de Poutrincourt, the 
future proprietor of Port Royal ; and the pilot, 
Samuel de Champlain. 

John Fiske in his " New France and New 
England " has said of this noble and charming 
man : " He was a true vildng, who loved the 
tossing waves and the howling of the wind in 
the shrouds. His strength and agility seemed 
inexhaustible ; in the moment of danger his 
calmness was unruffled as he stood with hand 
on tiller, calling out his orders in cheery tones 
that were heard above the tempest. He was a 
strict disciplinarian, but courteous and merciful 
as well as just and true; and there was a blithe- 
ness of mood and quaintness of speech about him 
that made him a most lovable companion. In 

1 The names of a few of these may be gathered from Cham- 
plain's journal. Mention is made of les Sieurs de Geueston, Sou- 
rin, d'Oraille, Champdore, de Beaumont, la Motte Bourioli, 
Fougeray, la Taille, Miquelet ; the surgeons des Champs of 
Honfleur and Bonerrae ; Messire Aubry, priest, and le Sieur 
Raleau, secretary of M. de Mouts, 



18 MOUNT DESERT 

the whole course of French history there are few 
personages so attractive." 

Samuel de Champlain was born in 1567, in the 
httle town of Brouage, on the Bay of Biscay, 
some twenty miles south of La Rochelle. His 
father was a captain in the royal navy, and one 
of his uncles was a pilot in the king's service. 
Champlain was familiar with boats from boyhood, 
and the sea laid a strong hold upon his imagi- 
nation. In the dedication of one of his books he 
says : " Among the most useful and excellent arts 
navigation has always seemed to me to take the 
first place. In the measure that it is dangerous 
and accompanied by a thousand perils, by so much 
is it honorable and lifted above all other arts, 
beinof in no wise suitable for those who lack 
courage and confidence. By this art we acquire 
knowledge of various lands, countries, and king- 
doms. By it we bring home all sorts of riches, 
by it the idolatry of Paganism is overthrown and 
Christianity declared in all parts of the earth. It 
is this art that has from my childhood lured me 
to love it, and has caused me to expose myself 
almost all my life to the rude waves of the ocean." 

Champlain' s boyhood fell in the season of the 
civil and religious wars that were desolating 
France. Brouage was a military post of impor- 
tance, and it was captured, restored, recaptured, 
and frequently attacked from 1570 to 1589, so 
that all its inhabitants must have been familiar 



SAINT CROIX 19 

with war and trained to arms. There were peri- 
ods of peace, however, and Champlain evidently 
received some good schooling, for he wrote in a 
clear, convincing style, was an expert map maker, 
and showed throughout his life a spirit of jus- 
tice and tolerance far beyond the habit of his 
time. 

Brouage was a Huguenot town, but Champlain 
was all his life a stanch Roman Catholic. Never- 
theless, he served in the army of Henry of Navarre 
against the Catholic League. He loved his coun- 
try even better than his religion. History first 
mentions him as a quartermaster in Henry's army 
serving in Brittany. In 1598, when peace was 
made, Champlain went with his uncle in the fleet 
that carried the Spanish garrison home from the 
town of Port Louis. With this adventure his own 
narrative begins. Sailing to Spain, he spent several 
months at Cadiz and Seville, drawing rude pic- 
tures of cities and harbors, as was his wont, and 
then found a coveted opportunity of going to the 
West Indies. Philip II had forbidden foreigners 
to trade with his American possessions or even to 
visit them under pain of heavy penalties. Never- 
theless Champlain visited the West Indies and 
Mexico, penetrating as far as the City of Mexico 
itself. He paid close attention to everything he 
saw, making careful notes and rude drawings for 
a full report to the king of France. On the way 
home the ship stopped first at Panama and then 



20 MOUNT DESERT 

at Havana, returning to Spain in 1601, after an 
absence of more than two years. 

Clianiplain's account of this voyage, entitled, 
" A Brief Narrative of the most remarkable things 
which Samuel Champlain of Brouage met in the 
West Indies on the voyage which he made there 
in the years 1599 and 1601," remained in manu- 
script for more than two hundred and fifty years. 
In 1859 the Hakluyt Society published an English 
translation of it, and in 1870 the Abbe Laver- 
diere of the Laval University in Quebec published 
the original. The report is a very straightforward 
story, and reveals the manly simplicity of Cham- 
plain's character. Here was a man of thirty-three, 
confident in himself, but with no touch of self- 
conceit, eager to serve his king and his country, 
bearing himself so wisely that Spanish jealousy 
and suspicion were not aroused, an able sailor 
taking the dangers of the sea carelessly and ever 
curious for knowledge. Champlain had too a love 
of romantic adventure that carried him into many 
dangers, but never quite overcame his prudence. 
We discover in him courage, patience, resource- 
fulness, calm self-control, and kindness of heart. 

For his services on this voyage Henry IV made 
Champlain royal geographer and granted him a 
pension. He was not content, however, to remain 
at court, and hailed with delight an opportunity 
to go to the northern shores of America with his 
friend Pontgrave, the merchant of Rouen. The 



SAVVAGES, 

O V, 

VOYAGE DE SAMVEL 

ChamplaiNj DE Brovage, 

faic en la France noiiuelle. 

Tan mil fix cens trois: 

CON TENANT 

Ics mccurs, fa^on de viurc, mari.ig;cSj cruerves- & hab> 
tations dcs Sauuagcs dc Can.aiar. 

Dc la dcfcouucrte dc plus de qiuae cens cinqnancc 
lieuits dans Ic pais clesSauuacres. Quels pcuples y ha- 
bucnr, des animaux qui s'y trouucnt, des riuicreSj 
JacSjillcs & terrcSj & quels arbres & fraicts dies pro- 
duifent. 

De la cofte d'Arcadie, des tcrrcs que Von y a dcfcouuer- 
res, &:de plufieurs mines quiy font, felon Ic rapport 
•cks Sauuagcs. 




A PARIS, 

Chez CtAVDE DE MoNST jt'ce 1 1 , tenant fst 

boutique en la Cour du Palais, au nom de lefus, 

AYE^C PRIVILEGE DV ROY 



TITLE OF CHAMPLAIN'S BOOK 



SAINT CROIX 21 

two set sail in a little vessel on March 15, 1603. 
Their purpose was to reconnoitre the northern 
shores of the new continent to find a place for a 
trading station to be established by the Norman 
merchants with whom Pontgrave was associated. 
They sailed up the St. Lawrence River as far as 
where Montreal now stands, and Champlain made 
his first acquaintance with the Indians. They 
reached home in September and soon after Cham- 
plain's narrative of the voyage, preceded by a 
dignified dedication to the very noble, high, and 
mighty Seigneur, Charles de Montmorency, ad- 
miral of France and Brittany, was published in 
Paris by Claude de Monstr'oeil, printer to the 
University of Paris. Naturally and inevitably it 
was to this experienced and courageous navigator 
tliat Henry and his viceroy, De Monts, turned 
when they sought a pilot for the ships of the new 
colony, and it was with right good will that Cham- 
plain entered upon this new service. 

De Monts sailed from Havre de Grace on March 
17, 1604. He took a more southerly course than 
his predecessors and first sighted Cape La Heve, 
near what is now Liverpool, on the Nova Sco- 
tia coast. There he found a fur-trading vessel 
and promptly confiscated her, as she was acting 
in violation of the lord lieutenant's monopoly 
of trade, and then he waited until Ponto^rave 
came up, also enriched with the spoil of four 
Basque traders that he had surprised. Leaving 



22 MOUNT DESERT 

Pontgrave to continue his trading, and anchor- 
ing his own vessel in St. Mary's Bay, De Monts 
embarked in a smaller craft, " a barque of eight 
tons," and taking Champlain with him, coasted 
along the surf-beaten shores, looking in at the 
beautiful inlet where afterwards Port Royal was 
founded and which is now Annapolis Basin, en- 
tering the mouth of the St. John River, passing 
up into Passamaquoddy Bay and finally choosing 
as a site for his colony an island in a swift tidal 
river which offered good protection from savage 
foes. To his settlement De Monts gave the name 
of Saint Croix, the name now borne by the river. 
The small boat returned to St. Mary's Bay to 
bring up the ship to the chosen site, and soon the 
colonists landed and with hardy industry cleared 
the woods, built a fort, mounted the cannon, 
set up rude shelters, and inclosed the whole with 
a palisade. There were workshops, a magazine, 
chapel, and cemetery, and a big covered gallery 
for labor and amusement in the approaching win- 
ter.^ When their labors were well advanced, the 
company parted. Poutrincourt sailed in the ship 
for France to bring back reinforcements the suc- 
ceeding spring. Seventy-nine men remained at 
St. Croix ; and of these early in September Cham- 
plain took twelve, and together with two Indians 
set out on a voyage of discovery in what he called 

^ Champlain made an elaborate drawing of the settlement, 
•which can be found reproduced in Ganong's Docket Island, p. 157. 



SAINT CROIX 23 

a " patache ; " which was apparently the same 
" barque " which first brought him to St. Croix. 
This big open boat, fitted with a lateen sail and 
with oars, is depicted in Champlain's drawing of 
the St. Croix settlement. Let me tell the story 
of this voyage as it concerns Mount Desert in 
Champlain's own words, translated from the musty 
quarto published in 1613. 

" Setting out from the mouth of the St. Croix 
and sailing westward along the coast, we made 
the same day some twenty-five leagues and passed 
by many islands, reefs, and rocks, which some- 
times extend more than four leagues out to sea. 
The islands are covered with pines, firs, and other 
trees of an inferior sort. Among the islands are 
many fine harbors, but undesirable for permanent 
settlement. 

" The same day (September 5, 1604) we passed 
near to an island some four or five leagues long, 
in the neighborhood of which we just escaped 
being lost on a rock that was just awash and which 
made a hole in the bottom of our boat. From this 
island to the mainland on the north the distance 
is not more than a hundred paces. The island is 
high and notched in places so that from the sea 
it gives the appearance of a range of seven or 
eight mountains. The summits are all bare and 
rocky. The slopes are covered with pines, firs, 
and birches. I named it Isle des Monts Desert." 

The next day " we sailed two leagues and saw 



24 MOUNT DESERT 

smoke in a cave a,t the foot of the mountains. 
Two canoes with savages in them came within 
musket range to observe us. I sent out our two 
savages in a boat to assure them of our good-will, 
but their fear of us made them turn back. On 
the morning of the next day they came alongside 
and talked with our savages. I ordered biscuit, 
tobacco, and other trifles to be given to them. 
These savages had come [to the island] to hunt 
beavers and catch fish. We made an alliance with 
them and they agreed to guide us to their river 
of Peutagoet " (Penobscot). Champlain then de- 
scribes in detail the physical features of Penob- 
scot Bay, which he makes extend from Mount 
Desert on the east to Bedabec, the present Owl's 
Head, on the west. With the scrupulous care 
that everywhere characterized his exploring work, 
he gives the necessary sailing direction for enter- 
ing Penobscot River, and he sailed up the river to 
the point where the Kenduskeag enters it, where 
Bangor now stands, noting with enthusiasm the 
oak-covered river banks and the lovely stretches 
of meadow. Champlain had a genius for topo- 
graphical description, and his maps, deficient as 
they are of perspective, and liberally sprinkled 
with marine monsters, are wonderfully accurate 
when we consider that he made no surveys, but 
judged only by his eye. On the seventeenth of 
September he descended the river, passed out by 
Owl's Head, and continued westward until close 



SAINT CROIX 25 

to the mouth of the Kennebec, where he was 
obliged to stop on account of adverse winds. The 
provisions too were running low, so he ran back 
before the wind and arrived at St. Croix on the 
3d of October, or just a month after he set out. 
When we consider what watchfulness is required 
in these days of lighthouses, charts, coast pilots, 
buoys, and beacons, to navigate among the num- 
berless islands and sunken ledges of that ragged 
and fog-haunted coast, what shall we say of the 
masterly seamanship and adventurous courage 
of the first pioneer.^ 

The winter at St. Croix was hard enough for 
the weak little band of starving Frenchmen who, 
alone of civilized men, clung to the fringe of 
the vast and savage continent. The bleak winds 
howled down the St. Croix, the ice piled high 
against the island and cut off the settlers from 
the mainland where they must needs get their 
wood and water. The wine froze in the casks 
and was served out by the pound. The scurvy 
broke out, and before the lingering spring ar- 
rived thirty-five of the seventy-nine had been 
carried to the little cemetery, and wellnigh all 
were brought to the verge of death. But with the 
spring the spirits of the colonists re\aved, and 
in June Pontgrave returned in one of the ships 

* The complete log of this voyage, taken from the Prince 
Society's edition of Champlain's voyages, is printed in the Barv- 
gor Historical Magazine. 



26 MOUNT DESERT 

with supplies and forty men. De Monts resolved 
to seek a better site for his colony, and on the 
18th of June, 1605, he and Champlain, with 
twenty others, set out in the patache on a sec- 
ond voyage of discovery to the westward. Again 
they passed the strangely indented shores, by 
surf-washed islands, rocky headlands, and deep, 
embosomed bays, until they came to the entrance 
of the Kennebec, where they came to anchor. 
*'At the entrance," says Champlain, "there is 
an island quite high which we have named La 
Tortue, and between this and the mainland are 
scattered islands and rocks covered at high water 
and the sea breaks over them." The voyagers 
spent the first week in July in making thorough 
exploration of the Kennebec and Sheepscot riv- 
ers, and Champlain's maps and descriptions are 
good for to-day. The 9th of July brought them 
across Casco Bay to the Saco River ; then, like 
some adventurous pleasure party, they coasted 
on, keeping close in shore and not stopping until 
they rounded Cape Ann, which they called Cape 
aux Isles. They anchored in Gloucester Harbor 
and made a splendid map of it, calling it Beau- 
port. Thence they entered Massachusetts Bay, 
and Champlain did not fail to note the quieter 
aspects of the scenery. He speaks of the salt 
marshes, of the many waterways, of the rounded 
islands — then covered with woods, now bare. 
What is now the Charles River they named for 



SAINT CROIX 27 

De Monts, — Riviere Du Guast. Their next stop- 
ping-place was at Plymouth, which again they 
charted, and being delayed by an east wind they 
visited the Indians, who returned the visit in great 
numbers. Thence they circled the bay, doubled 
Cape Cod, and steered along the great stretch 
of white sand beach till they came to the elbow 
of the cape which they called Malabarre. Here 
they fell into trouble with the Indians. A scamp- 
ish redskin stole a kettle from the camp-fire, and 
its owner, pursuing, was killed by the robber's 
comrades. This adventure, the dreariness of the 
scene, the shoals ahead, and the scarcity of pro- 
visions, warned them to return, and on the 29th 
of July they were back again at the Kennebec. 
Here they had an interview with an Indian chief- 
tain named Awasson, who gave them news of 
another ship on the coast. " He told us," says 
Champlain, " that there was a vessel six leagues 
from there that had been fishing, and the people 
on board had killed five savages of this river 
under pretense of friendship. According to de- 
scription, we judged these people to be English, 
and we named the island where they were 'Le 
Nef,' because at a distance it had that appear- 
ance." This was Monhegan, and these lines are 
the only allusion in Champlain's narrative to 
other voyagers on the coast. The ship the In- 
dians had seen was the Archangel, commanded 
by George Waymouth, first of the English navi- 



28 MOUNT DESERT 

gators on the shores of eastern Maine. De Monts 
had found no spot for his colony more to his 
hking than the lovely bay into which he had 
looked upon his first arrival, and so in August 
he removed from St. Croix to Annapolis Basin 
to found the famous settlement of Port Royal. 
Then, warned by Poutrincourt that his enemies 
were busy in Paris, and leaving Pontgrave in 
command at Port Royal, De Monts sailed for 
France. 

We cannot here follow the adventures of the 
colonists or trace in detail the after careers of the 
leaders. For fortitude, devout serenity, and pru- 
dent zeal it would be hard to match these pioneers 
of New France. The name of Champlain ^ is writ 
large on this continent. With sword in one hand 
and cross in the other, he became the father of 
Canada and the dauntless explorer of the western 
wilds. His blithe courage planted and upheld the 
fleur-de-lis on the rock of Quebec, and there on 
Christmas day of 1635 he died, striving to the 
last for the welfare of his colony, " for the glory 
of France and the Church," and glad to draw his 
last breath in the wilderness, where, as he wrote, 
" he had always desired to see the Lily flourish 

1 The best lives of Champlain are Abb^ Casgrain's Cham- 
plain, sa Vie et son Caractere, Quebec, 1898 ; Gabriel Gravier's 
Vie de Champlain, Paris, 1900 ; Henry D. Sedgwick's Samuel de 
Champlain, Boston, 1902 ; and the memoirs by Dr. Slafter in the 
Prince Society's edition of Champlain's works, and in Winsor's 
Narrative and Critical History of America. 



SAINT CROIX 29 

and also the true religion, Catholic, Apostolic, and 
Roman." ^ 

1 A thoroughly adequate account of the St. Croix colony is 
contained in the monograph by Professor W. F. Ganong entitled 
" Dochet (St. Croix) Island," and published in the Transactions 
of the Royal Society of Canada, 2d series, vol. viii, section iv, 
1902. This is a paper of more than one hundred pages, and 
includes copious quotations, with translations, from the contem- 
porary narratives of Champlain, Lescarbot, and Biard, reproduc- 
tions of Champlain's maps and drawings, copies of all the modern 
maps, a complete bibliography, discussion of the geology and 
natural history, and very full notes and comments. See also the 
accounts of the celebration of the three hundredth anniversary 
of the expedition contained in Acadiensis, 1904-1905, and the 
Canadian Magazine, August, 1904. All the local histories give 
more or less detailed accounts of the colony, but none are so com- 
plete and accurate as that of Professor Ganong, which leaves 
nothing to be desired. 



II 

SAINT SAUVEUR 



Beneath the westward turning eye 
A thousand wooded islands lie, — 
Gems of the waters ! with each hue 
Of brightness set in ocean's blue. 

And there, beneath the sea-worn cliff, 
On which' the Father's hut is seen. 

The Indian stays his rocking skiff. 

And peers the hemlock-boughs between, 

Half trembling as he seeks to look 

Upon the Jesuit's Cross and Book. 

There, gloomily against the sky 

The Dark Isles rear their summits high ; 

And Desert Rock, abrupt and bare. 

Lifts its gray turrets in the air 



Whittier. 



SAINT SAUVEUR. 1613 

The winter of 1605-6 was one of much suffering 
at Port Royal, though by no means so fatal as the 
experience at Saint Croix. It was manifestly 
impossible to maintain the colony without succor 
from home, and as midsummer approached and 
no ship appeared, Pontgrave grew anxious and 
finally embarked all his company in two big 
boats he had built and, leaving two bold volun- 
teers to hold the fort, set out to coast along the 
shore, hoping to find some fishing craft that would 
carry them home. Hardly had they gone when 
the ship Jonas, with Poutrincourt in command, 
and bearing that remarkable chronicler and poet 
and all-round good fellow, Marc Lescarbot, with 
a considerable reinforcement and supplies, sailed 
into the basin. The ship had been two long 
months on the ocean voyage. Fortunately Pou- 
trincourt had on his way detached a boat to explore 
the coast about Cape Sable, and this party met 
Pontgrave and his retreating colonists and turned 
them back ; so all were soon reunited at Port 
Royal. Then Pontgrave took the Jonas and sailed 
for home, and Champlain, this time with the in- 
defatigable Poutrincourt for a comrade, made a 
third voyage along the shores of the Gulf of 



34 MOUNT DESERT 

Maine until again obstructed by the head winds 
and the shoals at Monomoy. On their return 
" near Mount Desert " on a stormy night, the 
rudder broke and they barely escaped wreck. " 1 
will not," writes Lescarbot, " compare their perils 
with those of Ulysses, nor yet of JEneas, lest 
thereby I should sully our holy enterprise with 
things impure." 

Lescarbot's breezy narrative tells the whole 
story of the next winter with its busy industries 
and its merry revels. Port Royal was beginning 
to wear the aspect of a thrifty settlement, but 
with the spring came bad news. De Monts's 
enemies had at last triumphed, and the exclusive 
right of trade granted to his company had been 
withdrawn. Religious bigotry, which could not 
endure that New France should be ruled by a her- 
etic, had combined with the indignant jealousy of 
the merchants who had been shut out from the 
fur-trade to bring about this result. Without 
the revenue derived from the trade monopoly the 
colony could not be carried on, and with heavy 
hearts the Frenchmen said farewell to their pali- 
saded fort, their blooming gardens, their mill and 
storehouses, and the friendly Indians, spread sail 
for France, and reached St. Malo in October, 1607. 

De Monts, who still held his grant and his rights 
as viceroy, turned his attention to the St. Law- 
rence, whither Champlain led an expedition in 
the next summer to found Quebec. Poutriucourt 



SAINT SAUVEUR 35 

obtained a confirmation of his grant of Port 
Royal and planned and worked for three vexatious 
years for a chance to return. Meanwhile the 
party of the Jesuits was growing strong at the 
French court, and that society was not slow to 
perceive the possibilities of New France as a mis- 
sionary field. When at last Poutrincourt had set- 
tled his lawsuits and was ready to start with a 
new company, he found himself commanded to 
take a Jesuit, Father Pierre Biard, professor of 
theology at Lyons, with him. Now Poutrincourt 
was a good Catholic, but he had no love for the 
Jesuits, and when he sailed from Dieppe on Feb- 
ruary 10, 1610, he took with him one Father La 
Flesche, but left Father Biard behind. 

But now the hardest blow of all befell the 
infant colony. On the 14th of May, 1610, Henry 
the Fourth fell under the assassin's knife ; and 
soon after, De Monts, deprived not only of his 
monopoly but also of his master's sympathy and 
support, surrendered the commission he held as 
viceroy of New France. The infant colony 
needed a more powerful friend ; and the Prince 
of Conde, the chief of the Huguenot party, was 
induced to lend his name to the enterprise. His 
leadership, however, was only nominal. The pro- 
prietary rights were soon, to all intents and pur- 
poses, lodged in the hands of the Jesuits. An- 
toinette de Pons, Marquise de Guercheville, a lady 
of honor to the queen, was a devout adherent of 



36 MOUNT DESERT 

the Church of Rome, and an enthusiastic admirer 
of the Society of Jesus. The missions which tliat 
society had been carrying on with wonderful 
energy in Asia and in South America awakened 
her warmest interest, and she was glad to give her 
influence and wealth to further plans for similar 
work in New France. Biard's plight especially 
stirred her sympathy. She sought De Monts in 
his native town of Pons, to the government of 
which he had been reappointed, and offered to 
buy his patent. The moment was favorable to the 
success of her plan. De Monts stood in pressing 
need of money. Pons was one of the strong 
places secured to the Protestants by the Edict of 
Nantes, and great pains had been taken since the 
close of the civil war to repair its walls and forti- 
fications. But Pons was poorly garrisoned ; and 
its citizens, sharing in the uneasiness that per- 
vaded the Reformed body after the tragic death 
of Henry the Fourth, were anxious to augment 
their military force. ^ The bargain was made. The 
garrison of the little town, destined to be dis- 
mantled a few years later by the troops of Louis 
the Thirteenth, was strengthened ; and the title 
to the proprietorship of half the continent, save 
only the little seigneury of Port Royal, which was 
confirmed to Poutrincourt, passed from De Monts 
to Mme. de Guercheville. 

^ Histoire des eglises reformees de Pons, Gemozac et Mortagne, 
en Saintonge, par A. Crottet, Bordeaux, 1841, pp. 101-107. 





.^^- 




. --<^-.< 


■' 




d 




■■^;. 








i-' 






y'\'- $" 


±1 ■ .■ . 


> 






: ■ ' 






' / 




\^ 






j?:"'te. , L . 


- i^ 



AiADAMi; UK (;Li;iu.m:viLLK 



SAINT SAUVEUR 37 

The next summer, when Biencourt, the gallant 
son of Poutrincourt, returned to France he found 
himself obliged to take back with him to Port 
Royal not only Biard, but another Jesuit, Eue- 
mond Masse. On their arrival Poutrincourt re- 
turned to France to arrange for supplies. Masse 
went to live among the Indians to learn their lan- 
guage, and Biard in the autumn of 1611 ranged 
with Biencourt along the coast seeking a suitable 
site for his mission. They went as far as the Ken- 
nebec, where they found the Indians sullen and 
unresponsive because of the treatment they had 
received at the hands of the English who in 
1607 and 1608 had made the disastrous attempt 
to plant a colony at the mouth of the river. In 
November the voyagers were back at Port Royal,^ 
and Biard had decided that Kadesquit on the 
Penobscot was the place for the Jesuits to begin 
their work. Then the winter settled down again, 
but this time there was none of the genial good- 
fellowship that made pleasant the winter of 1607. 
The colonists were quarrelsome, and there was 
constant friction between the unwelcome Jesuits 
and the young commander, Biencourt, and his 
friends. The black robe of the priest and the 
brown capote of the trader were not well matched. 
Larger elements of discord, too, brooded over 

^ For this voyage of Biencourt and Biard see Biard's letter 
printed in Maine Hist. Soc. Coll. second series, v. ii, 418, and 
Biard's Relation, i, 32. 



38 MOUNT DESERT 

the settlement. National rivalries began to be 
talked about around the fires. Englishmen had 
planted a colony — no one knew how feeble it was 
— down on the James River, and Dutchmen had 
established a trading post on the end of Manhat- 
tan Island. The French claims were represented 
only by this shivering band among the snow- 
drifts at Port Royal and by another little group 
where " deep within the wild monotony of deso- 
lation, on the icy verge of the great northern 
river, the hand of Champlain upheld the fleur-de- 
lis on the rock of Quebec." 

Before the winter had passed, the vessel sent 
by Poutrincourt arrived with provisions, but bring- 
ing also another Jesuit, a lay brother, who came as 
the business representative of Mme. de Guerche- 
ville, and bringing also the news that the devout 
lady of honor had won to her plans the support 
of the queen mother, Marie de Medicis, and many 
of the courtiers, " who found it a more grateful 
task to win heaven for the heathen than merit 
for themselves," and was preparing to send out 
her main expedition the following year. 

It was on the 12th of March, 1613, that this ex- 
pedition finally set sail from Honfleur. The ship 
Jonas, formerly in the service of De Monts, bore 
the new colony. She was a little vessel of about 
one hundred tons, and Charles Flory was master 
of her. The chief of the expedition was the Sieur 
de la Saussaye, and with him went another Jesuit, 



SAINT SAUVEUR 39 

Father Quentin, the lay brother Gilbert du Thet, 
and forty-eight settlers, artisans and laborers. 
They carried horses, goats, and all things deemed 
needful by the pious patrons of the enterprise. 
A voyage of two months brought them to La 
Heve, where they set up a cross and the shield of 
Mme. de Guercheville. At Port Royal they found 
that famine had scattered the settlers into the 
woods in the search for food. Fathers Biard and 
Masse were taken on board the Jonas, and all 
was ready. 

" We were detained," says Father Biard, " five 
clays at Port Royal, by adverse winds, when a 
favorable northeaster having arisen, we set out 
with the intention of sailing up Pentegoet [Pe- 
nobscot] River, to a place called Kadesquit, which 
had been chosen for our new residence, and 
which possessed great advantages for this pur- 
pose. But God willed otherwise, for when we 
had reached the southeastern coast of the Island 
of Manan, the weather changed, and the sea was 
covered with a fog so dense that we could not 
distinguish day from night. We were greatly 
alarmed, for this place is full of breakers and 
rocks, upon which, in the darkness, we feared our 
vessel might drift. As the wind did not permit us 
to put out to sea, we remained in this position two 
days and two nights, tacking sometimes one way, 
sometimes another, as God inspired us. Our trib- 
ulation led us to pray to God to deliver us from 



40 MOUNT DESERT 

danger, and send us to some place where we might 
contribute to His glory. He heard us, in His mercy, 
for on the same evening we began to discover the 
stars, and in the morning the fog had cleared away. 
We then discovered that we were near the coast 
of Mount Desert, an island which the savages 
call Pemetic. The pilot steered towards the east- 
ern shore, and landed us in a large and beautiful 
harbor. We returned thanks to God, elevating 
the Cross, and singing praises with the holy Sac- 
rifice of the Mass. We named the place and har- 
bor Saint Sauveur." ^ 

As they lay at anchor a quarrel arose between 
the sailors and the colonists. It apj)eared that 
the agreement made in France was to the effect 
that the sailors were bound to put into any port 
in Acadia that should be designated by the 
Jesuits and remain there three montlis. The 
sailors maintained that they had thus arrived at 
a port in Acadia, and that the term of three 
months ought to date from this arrival. To this 
it was answered that Mount Desert was not the 
port designated, which was Kadesquit, and there- 
fore that the time they were at anchor was not 
to be taken into account. 

* The landfall cannot be exactly identified. It was on the 
"eastern shore " of the island, and in a "large and beautiful 
harbor." It was also, as the later narrative shows, some nine 
miles from the Indian village at the entrance of Somes Sound. 
It was therefore somewhere in the vicinity of Bar Harbor. The 
name of Saint Sauveur was transferred to the final settlement. 




OTTKK CLIFF 



SAINT SAUVEUR 41 

" While this question was pending," says the 
Father, " the Savages made a fire, in order that 
we might see the smoke." On being assured that 
the Fathers from Port Royal were in the ship, 
Indians came alongside. Biard recognized them 
as some of those he had met on his journey of 
exploration two summers before. These savages 
asked the colonists to establish themselves at 
Pemetic (Mount Desert), urging that it was " quite 
as good a place as Kadesquit," but the Jesuits 
would not listen to them until they described 
how " Asticou, our Sagamore, is sick unto death, 
and if you do not come to our village, he will 
die without baptism and you will be the cause 
of his going to hell. He wishes to be baptized." 
No priest could withstand that appeal : so Father 
Biard and the interpreter and La Motte, the mate 
of the Jonas, got into the Indian canoes and 
were paddled along under the dark cliifs of New- 
port mountain, by the surf-beaten rocks of 
Schooner Head and Great Head, by fir-clad 
points and islands, " for three leagues," until they 
came to the Indian village on what is now Man- 
chester's Point at the entrance of Somes Sound. 
Here they found that the illness of the chief was 
no more than a pretext by which the savages 
had induced them to view the spot where they 
wished the Jesuits to settle ; and their device was 
abundantly successful. The point opposite the 
Indian village seemed an ideal place for their 



42 MOUNT DESERT 

colony, and so, as this settled all disputes, the 
ship was brought round and it was unanimously 
agreed to remain at Mount Desert. 

Father Biard thus describes the chosen site : 
" Thi« place is a beautiful hillside sloping gently 
from the seashore, and supplied with water by a 
spring on either side. There are from twenty-five 
to thirty acres, covered with grass, which, in some 
places, reaches the height of a man. It fronts 
the south and east. The soil is rich and fertile. 
The harbor is smooth as a pond, being shut in 
by the large island of Mount Desert, besides 
sheltered by certain smaller islands which break 
the force of the winds and waves, and fortify the 
entrance. It is large enough to hold any fleet, 
and ships can discharge within a cable's length 
from the shore. It is in latitude forty-four and 
one half degrees north, a position more northerly 
than that of Bordeaux.^ . . . When we had 
landed in this place, and planted the Cross, we 
began to work, and with the work began our dis- 
putes, the omen and origin of our misfortunes. 
The cause of these disputes was that our Captain, 
La Saussaye, wished to attend to agriculture, and 
our other leaders besought him not to occupy the 
workmen in that manner, and so delay the erec- 
tion of dwellings and fortifications. He would 

' Father Biard's description so clearly identifies the site of 
Saint Sauveur that Parkman and all the other authorities agree 
that it must have been at Fernald's Point at the entrance of 
Somes Sound. 



SAINT SAUVEUE 43 

not comply with this request, and from these dis- 
putes arose others, which lasted until the English 
obliged us to make peace in the manner I am 
about to relate." 

For the j)ious hopes of the originators of the 
enterprise and the activities of the pioneers were 
doomed to sudden and surprising extinction. 
Some Indians fishing in their canoes off the outer 
islands descried a vessel and, boarding her, 
made known to the captain that white men were 
building houses at Pemetic. Now the ship was 
the Treasurer^ of Jamestown in Virginia, com- 

1 The ship Treasurer first appears in the annals of the Vir- 
ginia trade in 1612, when she came out in command of Argall, 
who had previously made two voyages to Virginia, first in 1609 
in command of a vessel sent by John Cornelius, one of the 
London Company, " to trucke with the Colony and fish for stur- 
geon " (Smith's Virginia, p. 88), and second in 1610 in command 
of the Delaware bearing Lord Delaware, the new governor. 
Lord Delaware returned to England on account of his ill health, 
in March, 1611, and soon after placed Argall in command of the 
Treasurer, a new vessel of about 250 tons which he and sev- 
eral noble associates had built for the Virginia business. John 
Pory, secretary of Virginia, in his letter to Sir Dudley Carle- 
ton {Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. fourth series, ix, 4) calls her a " man 
of warre," and says that Argall was part owner of her. Argall 
continued in command of this vessel for four years. In her he 
procured corn from the Indians for the starving settlers at 
Jamestown, and in her he effected the capture of Pocahontas, 
which secured the Virginia colony from the hostility of the In- 
dians. In her in 1613 he made the expedition against the French 
colonies in Maine and the Dutch at Manhattan, and in her he 
returned to England in 1616 with Sir Thomas Dale, Pocahon- 
tas, and her husband, John Rolfe. Argall came back as deputy 
governor of the colony, and the Treasurer remained in the 



44 MOUNT DESERT 

manded by Samuel Argall. From the mimic ges- 
tures of the Indians and the word " Norman " 
Argall guessed that the settlers at Pemetic could 
be none other than Frenchmen, and though osten- 
sibly on a fishing voyage, he really bore a com- 
mission commanding him to expel Frenchmen 
and other interlopers from the territory of King 
James. Detaining one of the Indians as an un- 
willing guide, — for too late did the savages dis- 
cover that these white men were foes to their 
new friends, — Argall set all sail, and soon was 
racing into the Western Way before the strong 
southwester, the British flag flying, and " ther 
drums and trumpets making a furious noise." 

The French were utterly surprised. The pilot 
shoved off in the longboat to meet the incoming 
stranger, but discovering the evident hostile in- 
tent he hid behind Greening's Island. The mate 
and a dozen others tumbled aboard the Jonas, 
but they could do nothing for defense, nor could 
they escape, for the sails had all been unbent and 
rigged as an awning against the summer sun. 
The governor and most of the men stayed on 
shore. When they came within range of the 
Jonas the English fired a volley which the French 
in their consternation were unable to return, until 
Father Gilbert du Thet, hearing Captain Flory 

service of the Company until in 1620, when being found " starke 
rotten and unserviceable," she was broken up at Bermuda and 
her guns used to equip the forts there. 



SAINT SAUVEUR 45 

order his men to fire, "took a match and caused 
our cannon to speak as loudly as the enemy's," 
only, as Father Biard adds, " the misfortune was 
that he did not take aim, if he had done so there 
mio'ht have been somethino^ more than noise." 
The Treasurer ranged alongside of the Jonas and 
fired another volley, by which the captain and 
three others were hurt, and the brave young priest, 
du Thet, fell mortally wounded across the helm.^ 
As the English boarded the ship the French 
threw themselves into the rowboat or into the 
water and made for the beach. Two more were 
killed as they swam,^ while the French on shore, 
seeing the fate of their comrades, fled into the 
woods or up the crags of Flying Mountain. 

And now Argall proved himself as wily as he 
was prompt. In the half-finished fort he found 
the strong box of the governor, La Saussaye, and 
from this he took all the papers and credentials 
of the colonists. Gradually the French, finding 
nothing but starvation before them in the woods, 
came in and yielded themselves prisoners. La 

1 He died the next day. "Thus," said Biard, "his prayers 
were granted, for, on our departure from Honfleur, he had raised 
his hands and eyes toward heaven, praying that he might return 
no more to France, but that he might die laboring for the salva- 
tion of souls, and especially of the savages. He was buried the 
same day at the foot of a large cross which we had erected on 
our arrival." 

^ " They were both," says Biard, " promising young men, Le 
Moine from Dieppe and Nenen of Beauvais. Their bodies were 
found nine days afterwards and carefully buried." 



46 MOUNT DESERT 

Saussaye was brought before Argall, who charged 
him \\dth being a trespasser upon the territory 
of the king of England. This La Saussaye nat- 
urally denied, and claimed his rights under the 
grants of the king of France, but as he was 
unable to produce his commission, he and his 
comrades were held as prisoners and the French 
camp given to the pillage of the Virginians. " It 
is difficult," says Father Biard, " to believe how 
much sorrow we experienced during this time, 
for we did not know what was to be our fate. 
On the one hand, we expected either death or 
slavery from the English ; and on the other, to 
remain an entire year among the Savages 
seemed to us a lingering and painful death." 

Argall's act has been censured as a mere buc- 
canneering or piratical enterprise, undertaken in 
the course of a fishing voyage. Even Parkman 
says that it was utterly unauthorized.^ But the 

^ Sir Samuel Argall was born in Bristol, England, in 1572 
and died in 1639. He first came to Virginia in 1609 and was for 
ten years closely associated with the colony. His character has 
been almost uniformly execrated by writers on the history of 
Virginia. The chief accusations against him are contained in the 
letter of the Council of the London Company superseding him in 
the office of deputy governor of Virginia in 1618. The charges 
recorded in that letter have been accepted by the historians as 
if they were authentic. It should, however, be noted that these 
charges of greed and rapacity and fraudulent practices are inde- 
finite and unaccompanied by proof. After his return to England 
Argall courted investigation, but the case was never pressed, and 
the suit instituted against him came to nothing. The records of 
the London Company show that the same men who signed the 



SAINT SAUVEUR 47 

Virginia records prove that his enterprise was 
an authorized one and was undertaken with the 

letter of recall containing the charges showed him afterwards 
respect and friendship. 

The deed by which Argall is best known, the capture of Poca- 
hontas in 1612, has usually been denounced as an act of infamous 
treachery, but it was certainly defensible on grounds of public 
policy and its results were beneficial to the infant colony. The 
object of the capture of Pocahontas was set forth clearly by 
Argall himself (Letter to Hawes, Purchas, iv, 1765). He says 
that he had resolved to seize Pocahontas " for the ransom of so 
many Englishmen as were prisoners with Powhatan." This pur- 
pose was accomplished, for the English captives were restored 
and peace was established between the Indians and the colonists. 
Before a year had passed Pocahontas regarded her abduction as 
the happiest event of her life and refused to return to the 
Indians, declaring that she " would dwell with the English who 
loved her best." By an apparently legitimate stratagem Argall 
thus accomplished a ransom and a peace which Sir Thomas Dale 
had said would require an army of two thousand men, and put 
an effectual and permanent check upon the hostility of the Pow- 
hatans. 

Between 1617 and 1619 Argall was the deputy governor of 
Virginia and proved himself harsh but efficient. The stringent 
regidations which he adopted for the government of the colony 
have been censured for their severity but appear to have been 
well adapted to the exigencies of the situation and to the unstable 
and motley character of the people under his government. His 
Sunday laws, which have been particularly condemned as acts of 
tyranny, were really gentler than the laws of Sir Thomas Dale 
which they superseded, while the outcry against his trade regula- 
tions was obviously raised by avaricious speculators whose illicit 
trade was interfered with. 

After his return to England Argall served in 1620 as Captain 
of the Golden Phcenix in the expedition under Sir Robert 
Mansell against Algiers. In 1623 he was knighted by King James, 
and two years later, in the war with Spain, he was given com- 
mand of a small fleet in the Channel which captured and sent in 
seven Spanish prizes. He then joined the unsuccessful expedition 



48 MOUNT DESERT 

definite purpose of dispersing the French in 
Acadia. It is true, indeed, that no one in Vir- 

under Sir Edward Cecil against Cadiz. Argall's ship, the Sur- 
prise, of six hundred tons, forty guns, and two hundred and 
fifty men, was made the flagship of the Earl of Essex, the vice- 
admiral of the fleet. 

The unsparing obloquy which rests upon Argall's name seems, 
upon careful investigation, to be chiefly based upon the artful 
accusations of jealous detractors or vindictive enemies. It should 
be remembered that the early history of the Jamestown colony 
is a story of quarrels (Fiske, Old Virginia, p. 98). All the 
chroniclers had to take sides with one party or another in the 
controversies that darken the story of the beginnings of the set- 
tlement. In reading the accusations and vindications in the 
writings of Wingfield and Percy and Newport and Smith and 
Pory and Hamor and the rest of the original authorities, one has 
always to make allowances for the personal animosities. Further, 
it is well known that the short history of the London Company is 
a story of strenuous political controversy. There were two parties 
in the Company, one the " Court " party led by Sir Thomas Smith 
and the Earl of Warwick, the other the " Country " party led by 
the Earl of Southampton and Sir Edwin Sandys. The contem- 
porary writers, upon whom the later historians depend, were 
earnest partisans, praising their friends and colleagues and con- 
demning their enemies. Historic justice has decreed that the 
" Country " party represented the side of enlightenment and 
progress, and the modern historians naturally and legitimately 
incline to believe the reports of the writers who represent that 
side. Argall belonged to the " Court " party. He was a kinsman 
of Sir Thomas Smith and a close friend of the Earl of Warwick. 

The first historical work about Virginia written in the modern 
spirit is Stith's History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Vir- 
ginia (1747), and all the modern histories are more or less based 
on that book. Now Dr. Stith, who was the learned president of 
William and Mary College, had before him when he wrote the 
record of the London Company transcribed by Sir Edwin Sandys 
and Nicholas Ferrar, and he naturally adopted their point of 
view. Stith's account of Argall thus reflects the censures of his 
enemies and is undoubtedly colored by their personal bitterness. 



SAINT SAUVEUR 49 

ginia knew about the arrival of La Saussaye's 
colony at Mount Desert, but the Virginia author- 
ities could not but be aware of the earlier attempts 
at French colonization. Lescarbot's " France 
Nouvelle " was published in Paris in 1609 and 
Erondell's English translation in the same year. 
Sir Thomas Gates and Sir Thomas Dale in Vir- 
ginia undoubtedly knew this book and knew too 
that the colonies described by Lescarbot were 
planted within the territory comprehended in 
King James's patents. The charter of Virginia 
directed the governor "to repel and resist, as 
well by sea as by land, by all ways and means 
whatsoever, all and every person and persons . . . 
who shall attempt to inhabit within the said sev- 
eral precincts and limits." The "precincts," as 
defined in the same instrument, covered all the 
territory between the 34th and 45th parallels of 
latitude. The colonists were also authorized to 
" take and surprise " unlicensed ships found trad- 
ing in any harbors within the same limits. Argall 
was, therefore, not only authorized but com- 
manded to break up the French settlements at 
" Santa Cruz and Port Royal." As the nations 
were at peace it was given out that he was going 

Argall was undoubtedly a bold, resolute, somewhat ruthless and 
unscrupulous man of action, but his exploits do not seem to de- 
serve the superfluous condemnation bestowed on them. It would 
not be very difficult to rehabilitate his character and set him in 
the line of the English sea kings whose deeds, though quite as 
piratical as those of Argall, are extolled as heroic. 



50 MOUNT DESERT 

fishing, but his equipment, a " man of warre," 
armed with fourteen guns and manned by sixty 
musketeers, was hardly one for a peaceful fish- 
ing voyage. He was on his way to execute his 
orders when the information gained from the 
Indians led him first to the newer and nearer 
settlement at Mount Desert. There he discharged 
the duty laid on him vigorously and, in spite of 
the insinuations of Biard, without resorting to 
any stratagems that were not judicious and 
natural. The records of Virginia completely vin- 
dicate him from the common charge of piracy 
and mention that he was given a certificate, under 
the seal of the colony, declaring that he had in 
no way exceeded the commission given him.^ 
His exploit was the premonition of a great and 
inevitable conflict, not to be decided until, nearly 
one hundred and fifty years later, Wolfe climbed 
the Heights of Abraham. 

What now was to be done with the prisoners ? 
Argall had no desire to take them to Virginia, 
and he could not leave them where they were. 
He treated them well and took the Jesuits to his 
own table. La Saussaye himself, and " at least ten 
others," testified that he committed upon them 
no act of cruelty, but showed them humanity and 
courtesy. Biard, writing after his return home, 
when he had nothing to gain by flattery, wrote 

1 Smith's Virginia, p. 115; Hamor, p. 39; Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. 
second series, ix, 5; fourth series, ix, 41. 



SAINT SAUVEUR 51 

thcit Argall showed himself " such that we have 
reason to wish, for his sake, that he may hence- 
forth serve a better cause, where the nobleness 
of his heart may be displayed in befriending and 
not in injuring worthy people." Many consulta- 
tions were held between Argall and La Saussaye, 
and, at night, between the French and their pilot, 
Bailleul, who had not been captured. Finally La 
Saussaye elected to try and reach the French 
fishing vessels which came every summer to fish 
on the banks of Newfoundland. Accordingly he 
and Father Masse ^ wdth thirteen others were given 
the "barque," evidently a large open boat like 
the "patache" of Champlain's voyage, and a good 
store of provisions, and, joined by the pilot and 
his boat, they rowed and sailed eastward along 
the shore until, on the southern coast of Nova 
Scotia, they met two French trading vessels, which 
bore them safely to St. Malo.^ 

^ Masse returned to Canada in 1625, was sent home by Admi- 
ral Kirk, returned again in 1633, and died in 1646, when on his 
way to confess the garrison at Fort Richelieu. 

2 The length of the stay of the Jesuit colony at Fernald's can- 
not be accurately stated. Some of the earlier historians have 
given the impression that the French made permanent settlements 
in 1613, or at least that their stay was prolonged. In a paper 
read before the Maine Historical Society, December 7, 1893, 
Rev. E. C. Cummings pointed out that the historians Williamson 
and Bancroft had made the same mistake. In Williamson's 
History of Maine, vol. i, p. 206, we are told, in reference to Fa- 
ther Biard and his companions: "It is supposed the place of 
residence selected by the missionaries was on the western side of 
the pool, a part of the sound which stretches from the south- 



52 MOUNT DESERT 

The captured Jonas, with her " pinnace," Cap- 
tain Flory, the mate La Motte, and Fathers Biard 

easterly side to the heart of the island. Here they constructed 
and fortified a habitation, planted a garden, and dwelt Jive years, 
entering with great zeal and untiring perseverance upon the 
work of converting the natives to Christianity." 

There is no indication that Williamson was acquainted with 
Father Biard's Relation. Bancroft was acquainted with the ori- 
ginal source of information, but he permits a similar error to 
be implied in his account. Bancroft says (History of the United 
States, 9th edition, vol. 1, pp. 27, 28) : " A French colony within 
the United States followed, under the auspices of Mme. de 
Guerchville and Mary of Medici; the rude intrenchments Saint 
Sauveur were raised by de Saussaye on the eastern shore of 
Mount Desert Isle. The conversion of the heathen was the mo- 
tive of the settlement; and under the summer sky, round across 
in the centre of the hamlet, matins and vespers were regularly 
chanted. France and the Roman religion had appropriated the 
soil of Maine." The reader is allowed to enjoy this idyllic pic- 
ture till more than a hundred pages farther on, when Argall 
appears upon the scene ; it is natural to suppose that the settle- 
ment lasted for a considerable period. 

Exactly how long " matins and vespers were regularly 
chanted " round the cross at Fernald's Point we cannot say. 
The dates which bound the whole adventure admit of only a 
short stay. On May 16, 1613, the Jonas sighted Cape la Heve, 
and on November 9, 1613, Argall left Port Royal with Father 
Biard among his passengers. Between these dates Saint Sauveur 
was established and destroyed, and Argall had sailed from Mount 
Desert to Virginia, remained there for a time, and then sailed 
back again to complete, at his leisure, not only what was lacking 
in the devastation at Saint Sauveur, but also the destruction of 
Saint Croix and Port Royal. Here, then, are less than six months 
distributed between the voyage from La Heve to Port Royal, 
the getting away from that place, the voyage from Mount Desert, 
the development of the settlement, the period of invasion and 
pillage, the voyage to Virginia and detention at Jamestown, 
the return voyage to Port Royal. It is therefore obvious that 
the stay of the French at Fernald's Point could hardly have ex- 
ceeded a few weeks, and may have been measured by days. 



SAINT SAUVEUR 53 

and Quentin, and the rest of the company, were 
carried to Virginia. There the acting governor, 
brusque Sir Thomas Dale,^ threatened the jDris- 
oners with the halter, but Argall's interposition 
secured for them better treatment. Argall was 
directed at once to fit out the Treasurer, the 
Jonas, and the captured pinnace and return to 
complete his work of destruction among the 
French settlements. Biard went with the expe- 
dition and, it is alleged, encouraged it " out of 
the indigestible malice" he bore to Biencourt. 
In his own narrative he declares his purpose was 
to find an opportunity of escape, but it is plain 
that both the French and English looked upon 
him as a traitor.^ At Saint Sauveur the English- 
men pulled down the Jesuit's cross and razed the 
unfinished defenses ; then they went on to Saint 
Croix and demolished the old buildings there, 
and then crossed to Port Royal, where they burnt 
the entire establishment, pulled up the growing 
crops, and carried away the stock. Biencourt 

1 " Hard-headed, indomitable, bristling with energy, full of 
shrewd common sense, Sir Thomas Dale was always equal to the 
occasion. . . . He was a soldier who had seen some of the hard- 
est fighting in the Netherlands and had afterwards been attached 
to the suite of Henry, Prince of Wales. . . . Dale was a true 
English mastiff, faithful and kind but formidable when aroused, 
and capable of showing at times some traits of the old wolf. To 
the upright he was a friend and helper ; toward depraved offend- 
ers he was merciless." Fiske's Old Virginia, p. 163. 

- For the evidence in regard to Biard's treachery see Park- 
man, pp. 286-293, with references to Lescarbot and Purchas. 



54 MOUNT DESERT 

and his men were driven houseless into the wil- 
derness.^ 

As the ships returned to Virginia a storm dis- 
persed them. The pinnace foundered with six 
Englishmen in her, and the Jonas, in command 
of Argall's lieutenant, Turnell, and with Fathers 
Biard and Quentin on board, was forced to bear 
away for the Azores. Obtaining provisions at 
Fayal, they sailed again and duly arrived at Pem- 
broke in Wales. Thence the Jesuits were sent 
to Dover and to Calais, and Biard apparently 
returned " to the tranquil honors of his chair 
of theology at Lyons." ^ Complaint was made by 
Henri de Montmorenci, admiral of France, to 
the English government, of the high-handed pro- 
ceedings of Argall. The reply conceded that 
Argall acted under a regular commission, but be- 
yond the return of the Jonas to Mme. de Guerche- 
ville no redress was ever made. Argall returned 
to England in June, 1614, bringing with him 

1 In the spring following the English attack Poutrincourt 
arrived at Port Royal and found the place in ashes and his son 
wandering with his comrades in the woods. Despairing of his 
enterprise, he returned to France. In 1615 he was given com- 
mand of the king's forces at the assault of Mdry and fell in the 
attack. Biencourt partly rebuilt Port Royal, and the varied for- 
tunes of the historic place are told in all the standard histories. 

2 Biard's narrative of his adventures can be found in The 
Jesuit Relations. The story of the voyage home is told in his 
letter written from Amiens on May 26, 1614, to P. Acquaviva, 
General de la Compagnie de Jesus, and printed in P. Augusta 
Caryon's Premiere Mission des Jesuites au Canada, Paris, 1864. 
Biard died at Avignon, November 17, 1622. 



SAINT SAUVEUR 55 

Captain Flory and the rest of the prisoners. Flory 
was just in time to resume command of his re- 
stored vessel. 

With the dispersion of the Mount Desert col- 
ony the dream of Jesuit dominion on our coasts 
vanished forever ! But still to-day, when the 
mists envelop the crags and hills of the en- 
chanted island, the departed shades flit by. In 
the chambers of imagery we see the unbroken 
wastes that greeted the bold explorers, the moun- 
tains silent in primeval sleep, and the untraeked 
ocean mingling with the sky ; and when the surf 
rolls on the rocky beach the rhythm sings of the 
poetry of those forgotten times ; we hear the boom 
of the little cannon that the stout-hearted Jesuit 
fired at the advancing foe, and then the rattle of 
the volley that answered it ; we hear the shouts 
of the warriors or the pattered Latin prayers of 
the learned professor of theology who left the 
cloisters to plant the cross under the shadow of 
desert mountains and gather the savage hordes 
around it. And when the breakers dash them- 
selves against the crags and fall back in defeat 
they repeat the story of baffled human endeavor. 



in 

PEMETIC 



Slow winging as the raven flies, the age-long Past hath sped; 
Still forests guard, the eagles wheel, the osprey soars o'erhead ; 
A thousand ghostlike snows, dream-white, when winter moons 

are keen, 
A thousand drifts of bloom and song through tender mists of 

green ; 
The salmon's leap, the blue jay's flight, the shadowy canoe, 
These are the memories of the years that age and childhood 

knew; 
And loves and hates have flared and died as council fires were 

blown, 
Closed in the circle of the hills, unknowing and unknown ! 

Like sentinels the moving tides, slow pacing to and fro, 
Sweep to the ocean and return with strong and searching flow. 
The olden sleep — the virgin peace — the song of life unsung. 
All, as of yore, and guarded well as when the world was young ! 
Before the dawn float fading mists, unveiling, as they die. 
An empty sea whose blue waves leap beneath an empty sky, 
An empty sea — save for a fleck of white upon the blue, 
A lonely wing, of longer flight than ever sea-bird flew ! 

From the poem read by Charles Campbell at the three 

hundredth anniversary of the landing of De Monts and 

Champlain at St. John, N. B. 



PEMETIC 

A CENTURY and a half of silence rolls between the 
dispersal of the Jesuit colony and the coming of 
the first English settlers to Mount Desert. French- 
men and Englishmen, Catholics and Protestants, 
disputed the sovereignty of what is now Maine. 
Sometimes the boundary between the jurisdic- 
tion of the rival nations was at Pemaquid, some- 
times at Passamaquoddy ; but whether Mount 
Desert was in New England or in New France, 
its shores were for long periods untrodden by 
white men save when some fisherman or trader 
stopped for wood and water or some war-party 
made the island a rendezvous. The great hills 
were landmarks that no sailor could miss, and 
many an unrecorded traveler hailed them from 
the lonely sea. Captain John Smith, on his voy- 
age of 1617, though he did not sail to the east- 
ward of Penobscot Bay, saw the hills from afar 
and marked them on the edge of his famous map 
of New England. The Boston colonists made 
their landfall at Mount Desert, or Mount Man- 
sell,* as the English at that time called the island, 

1 The name Mount Mansell was given to the island in honor 
of Sir Robert Mansell, vice-admiral of his Majesty's navy, who 
was one of the Council of New England and one of the signers 



60 , MOUNT DESERT 

and John Winthrop wrote in his journal on 
June 8, 1630, o£ the joy with which the weary 
travelers, after two months' battling with the 
sea in the little Arbella, saw the hills, and of 
the fragrance that came from the spruce woods, 
and of the " fail* sunshine and so sweet and 
pleasant an air as did much refresh us." But 
though almost unvisited by white men, the island 

of the great patent in New England, called the Plymouth Char- 
ter. (Note of James Savage's in Winthrop's History of New 
England, p. 23.) Mansell's name, together with those of the 
other members of the New England Council, appears on the 
map of New England made for Sir William Alexander in 1622. 
(Figured in Winsor's Nar. and Crit. Hist, of America, iii, 306.) 
On this map each member of the Council seems to have been 
assigned special territory. Mansell's name covers the region 
about the Kennebec. Sir Samuel Argall's name appears on the 
territory of Plymouth. On the same map it is interesting to 
note that the Bay of Fundy is called Argall's Bay. The first use 
of Mansell's name for Mount Desert that I have been able to 
discover occurs in the well-known book published anonymously 
in 1622, entitled " A Brief Relation of the Discovery and Planta- 
tion of New England," commonly called the Council's " Rela- 
tion." This quaint description contains accounts of the wild ani- 
mals of New England, and among others of the moose, of which 
the writer says, " There have been many of them seen in a great 
island upon the coast called by our people Mount Mansell, 
whither the savages go at certain seasons to hunt them. The 
manner whereof is by making up several fires, and setting the 
country with people to force them into the sea, to which they 
are naturally addicted, and then there are others that attend 
them in their boats with bows and weapons of several kinds, 
wherewith they slay and take at their pleasure." The second 
use of the name Mount Mansell is in the journal of Winthrop 
quoted above. It gradually disappeared and by the end of the 
seventeenth century Mount Desert was the common name with 
both French and English. 



PEMETIC 61 

was not without the touch of human life. The 
earhest voyagers on the American coast were 
not alone in making discoveries. The discover- 
ers were themselves discovered. Champlain was 
conscious of this as he furled the sails of his 
" patache " in the lee of the desert mountains 
and saw the Indians peering out at the strange 
vessel from the headland. Nine years after- 
wards, when the Jesuit company in the Jonas 
saw the fog rise and disclose the same hills to 
view, there again were the Indians looking out 
at the ship and finally coming alongside in their 
canoes. 

The Indians of eastern Maine were related by 
tribal connections and by language with the Al- 
gonquin family of Indians which spread at the 
time of the white occupation over most of the 
northern and eastern parts of the continent. 
Parkman says that the name " Algonquin " was 
originally applied to a group of tribes north of 
the St. Lawrence River, and that the difference 
in language between these original Algonquins 
and the Abenaki of New England and the Ojib- 
was of the Great Lakes corresponds roughly to 
the difference between French and Italian, or 
Italian and Spanish. Tribes of this Algonquin 
family met the Jamestown colonists in Virginia 
and welcomed the Pilgrims at Plymouth. They 
were found in Pennsylvania and New Jersey by 
the Quakers. As Pequots and Quinipiacs they 



62 MOUNT DESERT 

roamed what is now Connecticut ; as Narragan- 
setts tliey were found in Rhode Island ; as Wam- 
panoags in Massachusetts; as Pennacooks in 
New Hampshire. East of the Saco River these 
tribes were generally known as Abenaki/ though 
the English colonists often spoke of them as 
Tarratines. According to Ventromile, the Jesuit 
missionary, the proper form of Abenaki is Waba- 
naki, designating " the people of the place where 
the sky begins to look white in the morning," or 
" the people of the east." A number of tribal 
names are given to the different villages or com- 

^ See The Ahenakis and their History, by Eugene Vetromile 
(1866); Histoire des Ahenakis, par L'Abb^ J. A. Maurault 
(1886) ; art. on " The Abenakis " in New England Magazine, 
N. S. iii, 42 (1890). See also articles by Lorenzo Sabine in 
Christian Examiner for 1851 and 1857 ; a sketch of the Abenaki 
in Hanson's History of Norridgewock (1849), and papers in the 
Collections of the Maine Historical Society, vi, 203 (1859), vii, 337 
(1876) ; and second series, i, 309 (1890) ; Mass. Hist. Coll. Soc. ix, 
207 ; Neio York Col. Doc. ix, 879. 

The spelling of the name Abenaki differs with the various 
authorities. Father Rasles, who was killed by the English at 
Norridgewock, called his Indians the Abnakis, and Father Ve- 
tromile says that in the older French manuscripts the name is 
written Abenaquis or Abenaquois. Sullivan (History of Maine, 
p. 88, 1795) calls the Indians Abenaquis. Williamson (History 
of Maine, vol. i) follows Charlevoix in naming the Indians Abe- 
naques. Mr. C. E. Potter (Maine Historical Soc. iv, 190) writes 
the name Abenaquics. Father O'Brien is probably right in say- 
ing that Abenaqui is the French and Abenaki the English of the 
name. The weight of English authority is certainly in favor of 
Abenaki, the spelling used by Governor Thomas Hutchinson 
(1760), by J. H. Trumbull, the chief American scholar in Al- 
gonquin, by Hon. J. P. Baxter, president of the Maine Historical 
Society, by Frederic Kidder, and by Francis Parkman. 



PEMETIC 63 

munities of these people by Marault in his " His- 
toire des Abenaki " (1866). The Sokoki lived 
about the Saco River and Casco Bay, the Nor- 
ridgewocks on the upper Kennebec, the Penob- 
scots on the river of that name, and two tribes 
known to the French as the Etchemins and the 
Malecites farther to the east. Most of these 
people had their more permanent villages on the 
upper waters of the rivers, and were in the habit 
of making semiannual journeys to the islands of 
the seacoast to hunt in winter and to fish in 
summer. They also tilled the soil with intermit- 
tent industry and raised corn and beans.^ 

^ In Wiusor's Narrative and Critical History of Ainerica, Pro- 
fessor N. S. Shaler describes the Indians' cultivation of maize: 
" The aborigines, with no other implements than stone axes and 
a sort of spade armed also with stone, would kill the forest trees 
by girdling, or cutting away a strip around the bark. This 
admitted light to the soil. Then breaking up patches of earth 
they planted the grains of maize, among the standing trees : its 
strong roots readily penetrated deep into the soil, and the tops 
fought their way to the light with a vigor which few plants pos- 
sess. The grain was ready for use within three months from the 
time of planting and in four months it was ready for the harvest. 

" The beginning of civilization which the aborigines had made 
rested on this crop and on the pumpkin, which seems to have 
been cultivated with it by the savages, as it still is by those who 
inherited their lands and methods of tillage, 

"The European colonists everywhere and at once adopted this 
crop and the method of tillage which the Indians used. Maize- 
fields with pumpkin vines in the interspaces of the plants be- 
came for many years the prevailing, indeed, almost the only crop 
throughout the northern part of America. It is hardly too much 
to say that, but for these American plants, and the American 
method of tilling them, it would have been decidedly more dif- 
ficult to have fixed the early colonies on this shore." 



64 MOUNT DESERT 

It was these Abenaki that Champlain met in 
1604, caUing them " Etchemins," which seems to 
mean " people who Hve in canoes." It was these 
Abenaki of the Norridgewock family with whom 
Biencoiirt and Biard parleyed on their cruise of 
1611. It was among the Abenaki of the Penob- 
scot tribe that Biard determined to plant his 
mission. It was these Penobscots that he met at 
Mount Desert, whither they had come on one of 
their summer fishing journeys, and among whom 
the Jesuits settled. These Indians were regular 
visitors at Mount Desert, coming down each 
spring in their canoes, occupying their former 
wigwams of poles and bark, digging clams, catch- 
ing fish, trapping beavers, and then returning to 
their palisaded village at Kadesquit on the Pe- 
nobscot for the winter.^ Had the colony of Saint 

^ Parkman's description of the life of these tribes is as follows: 
" In habits they were all much alike. Their villages were on the 
waters of the Androscoggin, the Saco, the Kennebec, the Penob- 
scot, the St. Croix, and the St. John; here in spring thej' planted 
their corn, beans, and pumpkins, and then, leaving them to grow, 
went down to the sea in their birch canoes. They returned to- 
wards the end of summer, gathered their harvest, and went again 
to the sea, where they lived in abundance on ducks, geese, and 
other water-fowl. During winter, most of the women, children, 
and old men remained in the villages, while the hunters ranged 
the forest in chase of moose, deer, caribou, beavers, and bears. 

" Their summer stay at the seashore was perhaps the most 
pleasant, and certainly the most picturesque, part of their lives. 
Bivouacked by some of the innumerable coves and inlets that 
indent these coasts, they passed their days in that alternation 
of indolence and action which is a second nature to the Indian. 
Here in wet weather, while the torpid water was dimpled with 



PEMETIC 65 

Sauveur continued, we should doubtless have 
been able to record the history of these Indians 
from the time when they were first discovered, for 
the Jesuits were observant and painstaking his- 
torians. Their carefully compiled letters, for- 
warded to the general of the society and stored in 
the archives at home, form to-day the best store- 
house of our knowledge of the aboriginal tribes. 
The Indian name for the island they thus early 
in history made a summer resort was " Peme- 
tic," which the Abbe Marault translates " That 
which is at the head." Dr. Ballard of Bruns- 
wick, a better authority in Algonquin nomencla- 
ture, derives Pemetic from two words meaning the 
" sloping land," and adds that the name proba- 
bly denoted a single locality on the island rather 
than the whole island. The great hill which 
stands fourth in the range counting from the 
east preserves the Indian name. The chief place 
of Indian resort was undoubtedly Manchester's 
Point at the entrance of Somes Sound. There 
the extent of the shell-heaps indicates long occu- 

rain-drops, and the upturned canoes lay idle on the pebbles, the 
listless warrior smoked his pipe under his roof of bark, or 
launched his slender craft at the dawn of the July day, when 
shores and islands were painted in shadow against the rosy east, 
and forests, dusky and cool, lay waiting for the sunrise. The 
women gathered raspberries or whortleberries in the open places 
of the woods, or clams and oysters in the sands and shallows, 
adding their shells as a contribution to the shell-heaps that have 
accumulated for ages along these shores. The men fished, 
speared porpoises, or shot seals." 



66 MOUNT DESERT 

pation. There were other more or less temporary 
Indian villages of the same character at Hull's 
Cove on the northeastern shore and at Goose 
Cove on the southwestern side of the island. 
The name of Asticou, the sachem of these wan- 
dering tribes at the time of the Jesuit colony, 
was first used in 1882 for a summer camp of the 
Champlain Society at Northeast Harbor. Mr. J. 
H. Curtis adopted it for his estate on the eastern 
bank of the harbor ; thence it mounted to the hill 
whose western slope is on this estate, and finally 
it was adopted for the post-office and group of 
houses at the head of the harbor. 

The squalor of the lives of these Indians, the 
harshness of the winter climate, the accidents of 
the chase, the chances of their almost constant 
petty wars, all combined to keep the numbers of 
the wandering tribes small. A dozen lodges 
meant a large village, and these little clusters of 
wigwams were far apart. Though all of one 
stock and language, the Abenaki were constantly 
fighting among themselves. Biard's Indian in- 
terpreters who accompanied him on the voyage 
of 1611 and who came from the Penobscot or Pas- 
samaquoddy tribes, refused to accompany him 
beyond Monhegan, as their foes dwelt to the 
westward. The English records of the voyage 
of Captain George Waymouth (1605) and of 
the Popliam colony on the Kennebec (1607) 
make it plain that the Indians whose chief seat 



PEMETIC 67 

was at Pemaquid were at war with the Indians 
living farther east, called by the English Tarra- 
tines, and still later accounts indicate that these 
Pemaquid Indians were finally overpowered and 
probably absorbed by their conquerors. The 
Jesuits and the English colonists both exag- 
gerated the population of the wilderness. The 
nomadic habits of the Indians undoubtedly ac- 
counted for the inaccuracy in estimating numbers. 
The Jesuits were not above the desire to show a 
large number of converts, and the English set- 
tlers knew the eastern Abenaki only as the savage 
scourges of the border. The number of these 
detested foes was not likely to diminish as the 
hardy borderers told at the fireside their tales of 
sudden assault and cruel murder and rapine.^ 

In the eighty-five years between 1675 and 
1760 there were thirty-six years of open and bit- 
ter warfare between the New England settlers on 
the one hand and the French and Indians on the 
other. When peace intervened it was hardly more 
than an armed truce. The conflict in New Eng- 
land itself was hardly more than a succession of 
murders and pillages, finding cause, not so much 
in the European wars that engaged the mother 
countries, as in the inevitable conditions of local 
rivalry and hostility. The reasons for the ever- 

1 See Parkman's Pioneers, Thwaites' Introduction to the 
Jesuit Relations, Frederick Kidder's The Abenaki (1859), and 
Baxter's Sir Ferdinando Gorges, ii, 19. 



68 MOUNT DESERT 

increasing bitterness of the Abenaki tribes toward 
the Enghsh were concisely described by one of 
the chiefs when he said, " Frenchmen do not 
take our lands. They open our eyes to religion. 
They give us good weight in trade. Englishmen 
rob us and kill us. Englishmen shall die." 

It is not to be supposed that the Indians un- 
derstood the issues between France and England 
that were being fought out both in Europe and 
America. They became the allies of the French 
and the implacable foes of the English partly be- 
cause of the bitter enmities excited by the harsh 
treatment accorded them by brutal Englishmen, 
partly because of inherent vindictiveness, partly 
because of the influence exerted by attractive 
adventurers like Saint Castin ^ and other French- 

^ Jean Vincent de I'Abadie, Baron de Saint Castin, was a 
native of Ol^ron in Beam on the slopes of the Pyrenees. He 
came to New France in 1GG5 an ensign in the regiment " Cari- 
gnan-Salli^res." When the regiment was disbanded he "fol- 
lowed his natural bent and betook himself to the Acadian woods." 
He established himself in the old fortified honse at Pentagoet 
or Bagaduce, on the peninsida where the town of Castine now 
stands, and carried on a profitable trade with the Indians. With 
them he ranged the woods and shores or led them in forays 
against the English border. He married the daughter of the 
Penobscot chief Madockawando. He is described as " very 
daring and enterprising ... a man of sound understanding, 
hating the English, who fear him." (Denonville au Ministre, 
November 10, 1686.) Parkman says : " He was bold, hardy, 
adroit, tenacious, and, in spite of his erratic habits, had such 
capacity for business tliat ... he made a fortune of three 
or four hundred thousand crowns." He returned to France in 
1701, and his half-breed sons, Anselm and Joseph, succeeded 



PEMETIC 69 

men who, in striking contrast to the domineer- 
ing habits of the English, identified themselves 
with the tribes, lived in the lodges, formed more 
or less permanent connections with Indian women, 
and joined in the hunts and forays. Most of all 
they were influenced by the urging of the French 
priests who by their unparalleled devotion early 
won the allegiance of the Abenaki to the Catho- 
lic faith, and attached them to it with as strong 
a bond as the essentially unstable nature of the 
Indians permitted. Priests like Rasle and Bigot 
and Thury, acting often under orders from Que- 
bec, were constantly inciting their Indian fol- 
lowers to bloody retaliation for injuries received 
at English hands, and not only counseling war, 
but accompanying the war-parties against the 
defenseless villages of the heretics. " How long," 
cried the assiduous Thury, who was long the 
priest of the Penobscot mission, "will you suffer 
your lands to be violated by encroaching here- 
tics ! By the religion I have taught you, by 
the freedom you love, I bid you resist. Will you 
desert the bones of your ancestors and let the 
cattle of the heretics eat grass on their graves ? 
God commands you to shake sleep from your 
eyes, to clean the hatchet of its rust, and to 

him at Penobscot. See Parkman, Frontenac, p. 342; Wheeler's 
History of Castine ; Maine Hist. Coll.v'i, 110; Mag. of Am. Hist. 
May, 1883 (art. by Noah Brooks), and Longfellow's "The 
Baron of Saint Castine " and Whittier's " Mogg Megone." 



70 MOUNT DESERT 

avenge Him on His foes." Such urgency, work- 
ing on the Indian's natural love of bloodshed and 
pillage, sent the Abenaki on foray after foray 
against the frontier settlements. The fear of the 
scalping knife and the midnight attack kept the 
English at bay for more than a century. Con- 
stant warfare, however, could not but steadily 
deplete the originally scanty numbers of the 
tribes. From the time of King William's War 
the decline was rapid, and the Indians were more 
dispirited and dispersed. When the final peace 
came the Penobscots had dwindled into insig- 
nificance, and their united bands could muster 
only seventy-three warriors. The word of the 
younger St. Castin was fulfilled : " My mother's 
people will waste away and there is no need of 
new wars to accelerate their doom." After 
Wolfe's victory at Quebec and the final with- 
drawal of the French, some of the remaining 
Indians followed their rehgious teachers to 
Canada, and their descendants can be found at 
St. Francis in the Province of Quebec. Only a 
few Penobscots, Micmacs, and Passamaquoddies 
remained in Maine, living mostly, as they do 
still, at Oldtown on the Penobscot and at the 
mouth of the St. Croix. It is significant that 
the first English settlers at Mount Desert in the 
year 1762 and later make no mention whatever 
of Indians in the neighborhood.^ 

^ The story of the Indian border wars in New England is 



PEMETIC 71 

It is impossible in this book to narrate tbe 
events of King Philip's War, whose flames con- 
tinued to burn in Maine and New Hampshire long 
after they were quenched in the southern colo- 
nies, or of the barbarities of King William's War, 
which lasted from 1688 to 1698, and Queen 
Anne's War in the years from 1702 to 1711. In 
all this border warfare the eastern Indians were 
busily engaged, but for the most part the history 
of these times deals with the regions west of the 
Penobscot. The most eastern English fort was 
at Pemaquid, and save for Castin's post at Pen- 
tagoet, the French seldom came west of the St. 
John. The territory between was debatable 
ground, claimed by both parties and occupied by 
neither. 

Occasionally within this century of warfare the 
fog curtain that hides Mount Desert lifts for a 

fully told ill Parkmau's Frontenac and New France aud A Half 
Century of Conflict. The original French sources are found in 
Charlevoix and in the voluminous reports sent by the Canadian 
officials to the colonial office in Paris. Many of these are printed 
in such collections as Margry's Relations et Memoires Inedits and 
the New York Colonial Documents, vol. ix. Copious references 
to these and other original authorities will be found in Parkman. 
Contemporary English accounts are in books like Hubbard's, 
Penhallow's, and Church's histories of the Indian wars, Cotton 
Mather's Magnalia, the Massachusetts archives and the like. 
Innumerable references can be found in Winsor, Crit. and Nar. 
Hist, of America. See also such works as Drake's Border Wars 
of New England and the histories of the towns where fights or 
massacres took place, such as Wells, York, and Portland, Me.; 
Durham, Dover, Salmon Falls, N. H.; Deertield, Groton, and 
Haverhill, Mass. 



72 MOUNT DESERT 

moment. In Hubbard's " History of the Indian 
Wars in New England " ^ there is record of the 
compact^ made at Boston on November 6, 1676, 
between the Governor and the Council of Massa- 
chusetts and Mugg the Indian, in the name and 
behalf of Madockawando,^ sachem of Penobscot, 
in which it was agreed that acts of hostility 

^ The History of the Indian Wars in New England, by the Rev. 
William Hubbard of Ipswich, was first published in Boston in 
1677 and in the same year in London. A second edition was pub- 
lished in Boston in 1775 by Mr. John Boyle, and the work has 
since gone through the hands of many editors and publishers. 
Tlie standard edition is that prepared by Mr. Samuel G. Drake, 
with a historical preface, copious notes, and a life of the author, 
and issued in 1865. 

William Hubbard came to New England with his father in 
1635, was graduated at Harvard in 1642, prepared for the min- 
istry, and was settled at Ipswich as colleague with the Rev. 
Thomas Cobbet in 1656. For nearly fifty years he was a faithful 
pastor and chronicler of the events of his day. He died at 
Ipswich, September 14, 1704, at the age of eighty-three. As the 
colleague of young Gobbet's father, Mr. Hubbard was personally 
conversant with all the facts of Gobbet's captivity, and his book 
was published only a few months after the captive's return, so 
that we are well assured that the account is authentic. 

2 This treaty was the first of many similar agreements made 
between the Massachusetts authorities and the eastern Indians. 
Mugg, called by the English " Madockawando's prime minister," 
was a cunning, reckless savage, who had lived in the English set- 
tlements and could act as an interpreter. He was killed in the 
raid of 1677. 

8 Madockawando was for thirty years or more the master- 
spirit among the Penobscots, the tribe which most frequented 
Mount Desert. He is repeatedly mentioned by all the contem- 
porary writers, the English depicting him as a " diabolical mis- 
creant," the French as a great chief and faithful ally. With his 
death in 1698 the decline of his tribe began. He was succeeded 
by Wenamovet, whose name first appears on the treaty of 1693, 



PEMETIC 73 

should cease and that the English captives and 
vessels and goods held by the eastern Indians 
should be returned. Mugg hastened to Penob- 
scot with this covenant and the prisoners were 
delivered by Madockawando on the 25th of De- 
cember, 1676, " amongst which prisoners," says 
Mr. Hubbard, ^' there was, by a more remarkable 
Providence than ordinary, added unto them, Mr. 
Thomas Cobbet, Son of that Reverend and worthy 
Minister of the Gospel, Mr. Thomas Cobbet, Pas- 
tor of the Church at Ipswich, who had all the 
Time of his Son's Captivity, together with his 
Friends, wrestled with God in their daily Prayers 
for his Release." 

This Thomas Cobbet, the Indian captive, is the 
only white man known to have set foot on Mount 
Desert in the seventy years that followed the 
abandonment by Saint Sauveur. Throughout the 
years 1675 and 1676, when King Philip's War 
desolated New England, the frontier settlements 
had been harried by the Indians. The settlers 
had been murdered or carried into captivity and 
the scattered villages pillaged and burnt. One 
Walter Gendal had been driven froai his house 
and, coming to Portsmouth, he induced some 
young men to accompany him in a " ketch," or 
pinnace of about thirty tons, belonging to Mr. 

and who was busy in all the border fighting until 1726, when he 
signed a treaty with Governor Dummer that was followed by an 
unusually long peace. 



74 MOUNT DESERT 

James Fryer, a leading merchant of Portsmouth, 
to see if some of his goods could not be rescued 
and brought away. So in October, 1676, Gen- 
dal, with James Fryer, son of the merchant, John 
Abbot, skipper of the ketch, Thomas Gobbet, 
Jr., and six others sailed away from Portsmouth 
on this errand.^ Cobbet, the son of the Ipswich 
minister, was a youth who had been for some 
years in the employ of Mr. Fryer, and had shown 
such " faithfulness, dexterity, and courage " that 
young Fryer " would not venture unless his friend 
would go along with him." The adventurers were 
surprised by the Indians as they lay at anchor, 
in October, at Richmond's Island. The wind was 
blowing right into the roadstead, so that they 
could hardly hope to beat out against it, and the 
Indians " annoyed them so fast with their shot 
that not a man of them was able to look above 
deck." Young Fryer, " venturing too much in 
view of the enemy," was badly wounded, and the 
rest, after defending themselves " with much 
courage and resolution, . . . were brought to 
the sad choice of falling into the hands of one of 
these three bad masters, the Fire, the water, or the 
barbarous Heathen, to whom at last they thought 
it best to yield." ^ 

When the Indians came to share the prisoners 
amongst them, Cobbet " fell into the Hands of 
one of the ruggeddest Fellows, by whom within a 

1 Hubbard, ii, 33. 2 Hubbard, ii, 174. 



PEMETIC 75 

few Days after his Surprizal, he was carryed first 
from Black-pointj to Shipscot River in the Ketch, 
which the Indians made them to sayl for them, 
into the said River, from thence he was forced to 
travel with his Pateroon four or five Miles over- 
land to Daminiscottee, where he was compelled 
to row, or paddle in a Canoo about fifty five 
Miles farther to Penobscot, and there taking 
leave of all his English Friends and Acquaintance 
at least for the Winter, he was put to paddle a 
Canoo up fifty or sixty Miles farther Eastward, 
to an Island called Mount Desart, where his Pet- 
eroon used to keep his Winter Station, and to 
appoint his hunting Voyages ; and in that Desart- 
like Condition was the poor young Man forced to 
continue nine Weeks in the Service of a Salvage 
Miscreant, who sometimes would tyranize over 
him, because he would not understand his Lan- 
guage, and for Want thereof, might occasion 
him to miss of his Game, or the like, whatever 
Sickness he was obnoxious unto, by Change of 
Dyet, or other Account, he could expect no other 
Allowance than the Wigwam will afford. If 
Joseph be in the Prison, so long as God is with 
him there, he shall be preserved and in due 
Time remembred. 

" After the End of the nine Weeks, the Indian 
whom he was to serve, had spent all his Powder, 
whereupon on the sudden he took up a Resolu- 
tion to send his young Man down to Penobscot 



76 MOUNT DESERT 

to Mounsier Casteen to procure more Powder to 
kill Moose and Dear, which it seems is all their 
Way of Living at Mount Desart. The Indian 
was certainly over ruled by Divine Providence 
sending his Captive down thither ; for a few Days 
before, as it seems, after the Indians in that Place 
had been Powawing together, he told him, that 
there were two English Vessels then come into 
Pemmaquid, or Penobscot, which proved so indeed : 
yet was it not minded by him surely, when he sent 
his Captive thither for Powder, for it proved the 
means of his Escape, which his Pateroon might 
easily have conjectured, if it had not been hid 
from him. As soon as he arrived at Penobscot, 
he met with Mugg, who presently saluted him by 
the name of Mr. Cobbet, and taking him by the 
Hand told him, he had been at his Fathers House, 
(which was November the first or second before, 
as he passed through Ipswitch to Boston) and 
had promised to send him Home, so soon as he 
returned. Madockawando taking Notice of what 
Mugg was speaking that Way, although he were 
willing that he should be released according to 
Agreement, (his Pateroon being one of the Sag- 
amores Subjects, though during the Hunting 
Voyage of the Winter, he lived at such a Dis- 
tance from him) began to demand something 
for Satisfaction, in a Way of Ransome, not un- 
derstanding before that his Father was a great 
Preachman, as they use to call it : Reply was 



PEMETIC 77 

made to him, that he should have something in 
lieu of Ransome, viz. a fine Coat, which they 
had for him aboard the Vessel ; the which the 
Sagamore desired to see, before he would abso- 
lutely grant his Release : But upon sight of the 
said Coat, he seemed very well satisfied, and gave 
him free Liberty to return Home." ^ 

Of Cobbet's companions captured with him 
at Richmond's Island, Gendal was sent to Ports- 
mouth to gather a ransom, and upon his return, 
Mugg, the Indian leader, carried the wounded 
Fryer to Portsmouth, where, early in November, 
he died of his wound. Mugg went on to Boston 
to negotiate the treaty already mentioned and 
returned to Penobscot in the vessels sent to bring 
home the captives who were to be restored under 
the terms of that agreement. Abbot went with 
the Indians in the captured pinnace to the Sheep- 
scot River. Thence, after a while, they sailed for 
the Penobscot, the Indians intending to go up 
the river and cross to Canada to get more powder 
and shot. They encountered an Autumn gale and 
as Abbot " found ways in his steering to make the 

^ Hubbard, ii, 197. For this story of Cobbet's captivity see 
also the Narrative of Neiu England Deliverances, a letter written 
in 1677 by the Rev. Thomas Cobbet, Sen., to the Rev. Increase 
Mather, in which the minister of Ipswich concludes that his son's 
" redemption may be found among the special answers to New 
England's prayers. {New Eng. Hist, and Gen. Reg. vii, 216.) 
The story is also briefly told in S. G. Drake's Book of the Indians, 
p. 106. Felt's History of Ipswich contains sketches of Rev. 
Thomas Cobbet (p. 225) and of Rev. William Hubbard (p. 228). 



78 MOUNT DESERT 

clanger seem more than it really was," the ten In- 
dians in the ketch got frightened. Eight of them 
went ashore at Cape Newagen, and the other two 
at Damiscove Island. Abbot, thus left alone, chose 
" to cast himself upon the Providence of God in 
the Waters than to trust himself any longer with 
the perfidious savages on the dry land " — so 
" he came safe to the Isles of Shoals before the 
evening of the next day, February 19, 1677." ^ 

The next glimpse we have of Mount Desert 
in the contemporary records is of more signi- 
ficance in the island's story. Hardly had Sir 
Edmund Andros^ established himself in the New 
England governorship than he made, in the early 
spring of 1GS8, a journey eastward to inspect 

1 Hubbard, ii, 211. 

2 Sir Edmund Andros was born in London, December 6, 1637. 
His family had long been prominent in the island of Guernsey. 
He first came to America in 1666 as an officer in the army. From 
1674 to 1681 he was governor of New York and in the latter 
year was knighted. When the Duke of York succeeded to the 
throne as James the Second, Andros was appointed governor of 
New England and arrived in Boston on the 20th of December, 
1686. He had a tumultuous career in Boston, and upon the arrival 
of the news of the landing of the Prince of Orange, Andros was 
seized and imprisoned April 18, 1689. In February, 1690, he 
was sent home to England, and two years later was appointed 
governor of Virginia, where for six years he had a popular ad- 
ministration. He was governor of Guernsey 1704 to 1706, and 
died in London, February 27, 1714. See Memoir of Andros 
printed as an Introduction to the Prince Society's edition of 
the Andros Tracts, and Palfrey's History of New England, ii, 
352. 



PEMETIC 79 

the frontiers. He went by land from Boston to 
Portsmouth and then by sea to Pemaquid, where 
he went aboard the frigate Rose and sailed up 
Penobscot Bay. At Pentagoet he spoiled the 
fortified house of the Baron de St. Castin, an act 
wholly unprovoked and the signal for bloody 
vengeance wreaked by Castin's Indian allies on 
the defenseless people at Salmon Falls and Casco.^ 
Andros caused a census to be made of all the 
white people living between the Penobscot and 
St. Croix rivers and it was evidently his purpose 
to claim for his government all the territory west 
of the St. Croix. 

The record of this census is preserved among 
the Hutchinson papers in the possession of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society and is printed in 
the Collections of the Society, third series, i, 82. 
The document is dated May 11, 1688, and is 
headed, " Names of Inhabitants between the 
River Penobscot and St. Croix." 

The list is as follows : — 

At Penobscot. 
St. Castine and Renne his servant. 

At Agemogin Reach. 
Charles St. Robin's son. La Flower and wife. St. 
Robin's daughter. 

' In the Prince Society's edition of the Hutchinson Papers, ii, 
304, is a letter from Edmund Randolph dated Boston, June 21, 
1688, describing this exploit. See, also, Parkman's Frontenac, 
and Drake's Border Wars of New England, p. 10. 



80 MOUNT DESERT 

Pettit Pleasure by Mount Desert. 
Lowrey, wife and child. Hind's wife and four chil- 
dren. — English. 

In Winskeage Bay, on the eastern side of Mount 
Desert. 
Cadolick and wife. 

At Machias. 

Martell, who pretends grant for the river from 
Quebeck. 

Jno. Bretoon, wife and child of Jersey I . 

Latin, wife and three children, English ] 

At Pessimaquody, near St. Croix. 

St. Robin, wife and son, with like grant from Quebeck. 

Letrell, Jno. Minn's wife and four children — Lam- 
bert and Jolly Cure his servants. 
At St. Croix. 

Lorzy, and Lena his servant. Grant from Quebeck. 

St. Castin and St. Aubin are the well-known 
names of the French Acadian leaders, but the 
name of " Cadolick " on the " eastern side of 
Mount Desert " may give us pause. There is on 
record at Quebec a deed ^ or " concession " dated 
July 23, 1688, granting Mount Desert, the neigh- 
boring island, and a considerable tract on the 
mainland about " la riviere Donaquet," to the 
Sieur de la Mothe Cadillac, said to be then living 
in " La Cadie." This grant was confirmed by 
King Louis XIV on May 25, 1689. From the 
Andros census we are led to assume that Cadillac 
was actually living on this grant in 1688. 
^ See the, New England Magazine, March, 1903. 



PEMETIC 81 

Antoine de la Motlie Cadillac was a native of 
Languedoc and was born about 1658. His father, 
Jean de la Motlie, Seigneur de Cadillac, was one 
of the lesser nobility and a member of the Parlia- 
ment of Toulouse. His letters and writings show 
that he had a good education and that he entered 
the army at an early age, serving as a cadet in the 
regiment of Dampierre and as a lieutenant in 
the regiment of Clairembault in 1677. In 1683 
he first visited New France and lived for a time 
at Port Royal. Five years later he married, at 
Quebec, Marie Therese Guyon, daughter of Jean 
Guyon and Elizabeth Aunches, and apparently 
went at once with her to settle on or at least to 
explore his grant at Mount Desert. In 1689 he 
was at the court of Louis XIV, and while he was 
absent Port Royal was surrendered to Sir William 
Phips and his property there destroyed. The next 
year Cadillac returned to Canada with the fol- 
lowing introduction to the governor, Count Fron- 
tenac : — 

" Sieur Lamothe Cadillac, a gentleman of Aca- 
dia, having been ordered to embark for the ser- 
vice of the King on the Embuscade, which vessel 
brought him to France, his majesty being informed 
that during his absence his habitation was ruined, 
hopes that Frontenac, the new governor of Can- 
ada, will find it convenient to give him employ- 
ment as he may find proper for his service and 
that he will assist him if he can." 



82 MOUNT DESERT 

He at once won Frontenac's favor and was 
always afterwards a sturdy partisan of the gov- 
ernor's policies. His sprightly, sharp-witted let- 
ters to the minister in Paris are entertaining 
reading and a capital source of information about 
the life in Canada at the end of the seventeenth 
century. 

In 1692 Cadillac went again to France to 
give counsel concerning the proposed expedition 
against Boston and New York, and he drew up 
a report or " Memoire " describing the coast be- 
tween the Saint Croix and the Hudson and the 
people living there.^ This memoir is very inter- 
esting, but the localities described are not easily 
identified. Cadillac's spelling of the English 
names is original. He mentions Cambrigge, 
Martinvigners (Martha's Vineyard), Rodeillant 
(Rhode Island), Mananthe (Manhattan), and simi- 
lar curious places.^ The account of Mount Desert 
is as follows : — 

1 For a translation of this memoir see Collections of the Maine 
Historical Society, vi, 279. 

2 If the French made bad work of the English names, the 
English usually made worse of the French names. Numerous 
discoveries of unsuspected identity constantly surprise the reader 
of the contemporary chronicles and reports. Colonel Church 
always wrote the name of a French officer with whom he had 
dealings " Sharkee." That was the best he could do with the 
sound of the name Chartier de Lotbiniere. The most extraor- 
dinary case I have found is that of the officer called by the French 
" Le Capitan Cendre " and clearly by the historical facts to be 
identified with the Scotchman Alexander Glen. This apparently 
impossible identification is explained when we discover that Cap- 




BEAR ISLAND 






I l.\C'S HARBOR 



PEMETIC 83 

" From Majais (Machias) to Monts Deserts it 
is twenty leagues. This is an island which is 
twelve leagues in circumference, and very high 
and mountainous. It serves as an excellent land- 
mark for ships from Eui'ope, bound either for 
Port Royal or Boston." Then follow nine lines 
of unintelligible description of the country of 
" Donaquit," which is apparently the mainland 
about Union and Jordan's rivers, and then, 
" The harbor of Monts Deserts or Monts Coupes 
is very good and very beautiful. There is no 
sea inside, and vessels lie, as it were, in a box. 
There are four entrances. The northeast one is 
the best ; it has nine fathoms of water. In the 
eastern one, there are fourteen or fifteen ; in the 
southeast one, there are three and a half, but in 
the channel there is a rock which is sometimes 
covered by the tide. In the western entrance 
there are three fathoms and a half, but to enter 
safely you must steer west or southwest. Good 
masts may be got here and the English formerly 
used to come here for them. Four leagues north- 
west and southwest of the Monts Deserts, there 
is a rock which is not covered at high water " 
(Mount Desert Rock). 

This blind description apparently applies to 
the waters inside of the Cranberry Isles, though 

tain Glen was commonly called by his comrades by the familiar 
Scotch nickname " Captain Sandy," which naturally became on 
French lips le Capitan Cendre. 



84 MOUNT DESERT 

to make "four entrances" one has to divide the 
Eastern Way into two passages on either side of 
Bunker's Ledge. 

From 1694 to 1697 Cadillac commanded the 
fort and trading post at Michillimackinac, and is 
spoken of in the governor's report as " a man of 
very distinguished merit." In 1701, after a visit 
to France to forward his plans, he led the expe- 
dition which founded the settlement which has 
since grown into the city of Detroit. In this work 
he was engaged for six years, and it is interesting 
to note that when he signed his reports or official 
letters he always gave himself the title of " Sei- 
gneur de Donaquet et Monts Deserts."^ From 
1712 to 1717 Cadillac had a strenuous experience 
as governor of Louisiana. He died at Castle Tur- 
rain, October 16, 1730. It was his curious fate to 
be identified with the early history of at least 
eight of the States of the Union. Parkman says 
of him : " He was amply gifted with the kind of 
intelligence that consists in quick observation, 

1 In 1702, when Madame de Cadillac joined her husband at 
Detroit, there appear to have been five children living, for Cadil- 
lac's letters show that a son, Artaine, was already at Detroit, 
another son, Jasquay, came with the mother, and three daughters 
were left at the Ursuline Convent at Quebec. The births of other 
children are mentioned in Ste. Anne's Church Records, and one 
of them, Joseph, afterwards became a distinguished lawyer in 
Paris. Though all the sons married and had children, none of 
the grandsons lived. A granddaughter, Marie Therese Cadillac, 
married her cousin, Bartholemy de Gregoire, and appears later 
in this history. 



PEMETIC 85 

sharpened by an inveterate spirit of sarcasm, was 
energetic, enterprising, well-instructed, and a bold 
and sometimes visionary schemer, with a restless 
spirit, a nimble and biting wit, a Gascon impetu- 
osity of temperament, and as much devotion as 
an officer of the king was forced to profess, cou- 
pled with small love of priests and an aversion to 
Jesuits." ^ 

It was probably Cadillac's report about Mount 
Desert that for several succeeding years made the 
island the rendezvous for French expeditions 
against New England. The archives at Paris ^ show 
that in the summer of 1692 two French ships, 
Le Pole and L'Envieux, sailed from Quebec com- 
missioned to capture the English post at Pema- 
quid and to harry the New England fishermen. 
The allied Indians were meanwhile notified to rally 
at Mount Desert and join the ships there. The 
Sieur d'Iberville ^ commanded the expedition and 

^ Cadillac's services in and for New France, with many qno- 
tations from his letters, are set forth in Parkman's Frontenac, pp, 
324, 403, 405; and Half Century of Conflict, pp. 20-29, 298-302. 
See, also. Farmer's History of Detroit, Sheldon's Early History of 
Michigan, and numerous reprints of his letters in Margry's Re- 
lations et Memoires Inedits and New York Col. Docs, ix, 671. 

- Nero York Col. Docs, ix, 554. 

8 Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville was the third son of Charles 
Le Moyne, Sieur de Longueil, leader of the Canadian noblesse. 
The father and his twelve stalwart sons were for a century active 
in all the affairs of New France, and half a continent bears wit- 
ness to their adventurous hardihood. Nine of the sons were dis- 
tinguished in history and three were killed in battle. Of these 
Le Moynes it is written : " For dauntless enterprise, persistent 



86 MOUNT DESERT 

the governor, Frontenac, in reporting to the 
home office in Paris condemned him for delaying 
so long at Mount Desert as to permit of warriors 
reaching Pemaqiiid. When the French and In- 
dians arrived there they found an EngHsli man- 
of-war at anchor off the fort and did not venture 
to attack.^ The next year too found Mount De- 
sert a rallying place, and in 1696 Iber\411e's suc- 
cessful expedition against Pemaquid again made 
its final start from this natural landmark. The 

effort, and unextinguishable determination, for all the rugged 
essentials of primitive virility, these adventurers loom up in the 
dawn of American settlement with the gigantic proportions of 
their Homeric ancestors." Iberville was trained in the French 
navy, and his sagacity, courage, and great personal force soon 
approved him for high command. He first, however, appears in 
history as a leader in the expedition against the Hudson Bay 
Company's posts in the northwest, a " buccaneer exploit " that 
was fully successful. In 1692 he was captain of a frigate in the 
unsuccessful attempt at Pemaquid, and four years later com- 
manded the expedition that captured that post. Thence he sailed 
to Newfoundland, took and burnt St. John and destroyed the 
English settlements. The next summer he returned by sea to 
the Hudson Bay region, where he had also been in 1694 and 
"triumphed over storms, icebergs, the British fleet, and the 
forts." In 1698-99 Iberville led the expedition for the founding 
of Louisiana, and with his brother Bienville established New 
Orleans. He left Louisiana finally in 1702. Four years later he 
conducted a naval expedition against the English in the West 
Indies and died at Havana, July 9, 170G. Iberville's journals and 
reports are printed in Margry's Relations et Memoires, vol. iv. 
His career is told by Parkman, Frontenac, pp. 132, 388-392; 
Half Century of Conflict, i, 290-295; and in Grace King's life of 
his brother, Bienville. 

^ Parkman, Frontenac, pp. 357, 358; New York Col. Docs, ix, 
538, with other references to the original sources in Parkman. 




A. ^(yHJ^ ^/r^^.:^ 



PEMETIC 87 

primeval solitude was turned into a scene of 
unwonted activity by the presence o£ the ships 
of war and the transports lying at anchor, while 
the spruce-clad shores were fringed with the 
rude shelters of the Indian allies. 

The island next emerges into the light of his- 
tory when we read in the Massachusetts Records 
the instructions issued by the governor to stout 
Benjamin Church/ who five times led the yeo- 
men of New England against the marauding 

1 Colonel Benjamin Church was born at Duxbury in 1639. He 
was the most famous of the Indian fighters in King Philip's War 
and in the warfare on the eastern border that ensued ; an active, 
hardy leader, thoroughly acquainted with Indian ways and 
haunts, not too lenient, but a man of good judgment and of a 
generous, hospitable disposition which procured him both author- 
ity and esteem. He was killed by a fall from his horse, January 
17, 1717, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and was buried 
at Little Compton, R. I. His Memoirs, Entertaining Passages 
relating to Philip's War, written out by his son, Thomas Church, 
were first printed in Boston in 1716. The book is now a very 
rare volume. 

A second edition of the narrative was published at Newport 
in 1772, edited by Dr. Ezra Stiles, later president of Yale Col- 
lege. A reprint of this edition, with an introduction, index, and 
copious notes, was edited by Mr. Samuel G. Drake in 1825. Of 
this edition there have been many reprints. Finally in 1865- 
1867, Dr. Henry M. Dexter edited and issued a reprint in two vol- 
umes of the original edition of 1716 with facsimiles, a memoir 
of Church and many valuable notes. This is the standard edi- 
tion of this invaluable contemporaneous account of the Indian 
wars. The first volume contains the record of King Philip's 
War, 1675-1677, the second volume, to which references are 
made in this chapter, contains the journal of the Five Expedi- 
tions against the Eastern Indians, 1689-1704. 



88 MOUNT DESERT 

eastern Indians. His first expedition, in 1689, 
went as far as the Kennebec. In 1690 he went 
to Saco and Brunswick, in 1692 as far as Isles- 
boro' in Penobscot Bay. The orders for his 
fourth expedition bear date August 12, 1696, 
and are signed by Governor William Stoughton. 
Church's report says : " In the time Maj. Church 
lay at Boston, the News came of Pemaquid Fort 
being taken, it came by a Shallop that brought 
some prisoners to Boston, who gave accounts 
also that there was a French Ship at Mount De- 
sart, who had taken a ship of ours ; so the dis- 
course was that they would send the Man of 
War, with other Forces to take the said French 
Ship and retake ours. But in the meantime 
Maj. Church and his Forces being ready, im- 
barked, and on the 15th day of August set sail 
for Piscataqua, where more men were to join 
them, (but before they left Boston, Maj. Church 
discoursed with the Captain of the Man of War, 
who promised him, if he went to Mount Desart 
in pursuit of the said French Ship, that he would 
call for him and his Forces at Piscataqua, expect- 
ing that the French and Indians might not be 
far from the said French Ship, so that he might 
have an opportunity to fight them while he was 
engaged with the French Ship.) " ^ 

Church lay at Piscataqua nearly a week, " in 
all which time heard never a word of the Man 

' Church's Eastern Expeditions, 88. 



PEMETIC 89 

o£ War." Starting from Piscataqua on August 
22, he touched at York, Winter Harbor, and 
Monhegan, being in great hopes to come up with 
the French and Indians, " before they had scat- 
tered and were gone past Penobscot or Mount 
Desart, which is the chief place of their departure 
from each other after such actions ; " — at Monhe- 
gan the Enghsh lay hidden all Day and "at Night 
the Major ordered the Vessels to come to sail 
and carry the Forces over the Bay near Penob- 
scot ; but having little Wind, he ordered all the 
Souldiers to embark on board the Boats with 
eight days Provision, and sent the Vessels back to 
Monhegin, that they might not be discovered by 
the Enemy; giving them orders when and where 
they should come to him. The Forces being all 
ready in their Boats, rowing very hard, got ashore 
at a Point near Penobscot just as the day broke, 
and hid their Boats, and Keeping a good look- 
out by Sea, and sent Scouts out by Land ; but 
they could not discover neither Canoos nor In- 
dians." ^ 

The next night they rowed again, and on 
"getting up to Mathebestuck hills (Camden), 
day coming on, landed, and hid their Boats ; 
looking out for the Enemy, as the day before, 
but to little purpose." The next night they 
reached the mouth of Penobscot River, and the 
night after they pulled up to the falls (Bangor). 

1 Ibid. p. 89. 



90 MOUNT DESERT 

Here a canoe was captured conveying a letter 
from a priest to Casteen (Castine) in which the 
priest desired to hear of the proceedings of De- 
borahuel (D'Iberville) and the French-man-of- 
war. Having failed to find the enemy in the 
river, " Maj. Church then incouraging his Soul- 
diers, told them he hop'd they should meet ^dth 
part of the Enemy, in Penobscot bay, or at Mount 
Desert, where the French Ships were " ... 
" next morning came to their Vessels, where the 
Major had ordered them to meet him, who could 
give him no intelligence of any Enemy." Then 
they went on " to Nasket point (Naskeag at the 
entrance of Blue Hill Bay) ; where being informed 
was a likely place to meet with the Enemy ; com- 
ing there found several Housing and small Fields 
of Corn, the fires having been out several days, 
and no new Tracks. Then they divided and sent 
their Boats some one way and some another, 
thinking that if any straggling Indians, or Cas- 
teen himself should be thereabout, they might 
find them, but it prov'd all in vain. Himself and 
several Boats went to Mount Desert, to see if the 
French Ships were gone and whether any of the 
Enemy might be there, but to no purpose : The 
Ships being gone and the Enemy also." They 
now perceived " all their extream rowing and 
travelling by Land and Water Night and Day 
to be all in vain. The Enemy having left those 
parts, as they judg'd about eight or ten days be- 



PEMETIC 91 

fore." The expedition then went on to Beau Basin 
and St. John in the Bay of Fundy, and on the 
way back Church was superseded in command 
by Colonel Hathorn. 

In May, 1704, after the dreadful pillage of 
Deerfield, Governor Joseph Dudley issued in- 
structions to Colonel Church for his so-called 
fifth expedition. These instructions read in part : 

" When you sail from Piscataqua, keep at 
such distance off the Shoar, that you be not ob- 
served by the Enemy to Alarm them. Stop at 
Montinicus, and there Embark the Forces in the 
Whaleboats for the Main, to range that part of 
the Country, in search of the Enemy, to Mount 
Desart ; sending the Vessels to meet you there ; 
and after having refreshed and recruited your 
Souldiers, proceed to Machias, and from thence 
to Passamequado ; And having Effected what 
spoils you possibly may upon the Enemy in those 
parts, Embark on your Vessels for Menis and 
Signecto, touching at Grand Manan, if you see 
cause, and from Menis and Signecto, to Port Royal 
Gut ; And use all possible Methods for the burn- 
ing and destroying of the Enemies Housing, and 
breaking the Dams of their Corn grounds in the 
said several places, and make what other Spoils 
you can upon them, and bring away the Prison- 
ers. In your return call at Penobscot and do what 
you can there, and so proceed Westward.^ 

1 Church's Eastern Expeditions, p. 104. 



92 MOUNT DESERT 

On June 7, 1704, Church and his party accord- 
ingly " went directly for the Mainland of Penob- 
scot, and Mouth of that River, with their Pilots 
Tom and Timothy, who carried them directly to 
everyplace and Habitation both of French and In- 
dians thereabouts,^ with the assistance of one De 
Young [a French Canadian prisoner] whom they 
carried out of Boston Gaol for the same purpose, 
who was very serviceable to them ; being there 
we kill'd and took every one both French and In- 
dians, not knowing that any one did escape in aU 
Penobscot ; among those that were taken was St. 
Casteen's Daughter, who said that her Husband 
was gone to France, to her Father Monsieur Cas- 
teen : She having her children with her, the Com- 
mander was very kind to her and them. All the 
Prisoners that were then taken held to one story 
in general, which they had from Lafaure's Sons ; 
that there were no more Indians thereabouts, but 
enough of them at Passamequado ; upon which 
they soon returned to their Transports with their 
Prisoners and Plunder. The Commander giving 
order immediately for the Souldiers in the whale- 
boats to have a recruit of Provisions for a further 
Pursuit of the Enemy, giving orders to the Trans- 
ports to stay a few days more there, and then go 
to Mount Desart (and there to stay for her Ma- 

^ Timothy on "being ask'd, What number of Indians and 
French there were at Penobscot?" had replied that "there 
were several families but they liv'd scattering." 



PEMETIC 93 

jesty's Ships, who were directed to come thither) 
and there to wait his further order. Then CoL 
Church and his forces immediately imbarked on 
board their Whale-boats, & proceeded to scour 
the Coast, and to try if they could discover any 
of the Enemy coming from the Passamequado ; 
making their stops in the day time (at all the 
Points & Places where they were certain the 
Enemy would Land or come by with their Canoes) 
and at Night to their Paddles. Then coming near 
where the Vessels were ordered to come, having 
made no discovery of the Enemy, went directly 
to Mount Desart, where the Transports were just 
come ; and taking some Provisions for his Soul- 
diers, gave directions for the Ships & Transports 
in 6 days to come directly to Passamequado, 
where they should find him & his Forces." 

On the 7th of June they came to Passama- 
quoddy, where they did some damage, and then 
went up the Bay of Fundy. On June 21 they 
captured the French settlement at " Les Mines " 
(Minas), burning the houses, spoiling the crops, 
and cutting the tide dams. Then they pillaged 
Pigiguit and Cobeguit, but after a Council of 
War, they did not think themselves strong 
enough to attack Port Royal, and so decided that 
the naval vessels " should stay some days longer 
at Port Royal gut, and then go over to Mount 
Desart Harbor and there stay till Col. Church 
with his Transports came to them." Church 



94 MOUNT DESERT 

went up to Signecto (Chignecto) and again de- 
stroyed Beau Basin and " then embarked on 
board the Transports and went to Mount Desart, 
where he expected to have met the Ships from 
Port Royal gut; and going into the Harbour 
at Mount Desart, found no Ships there, but a 
Runlet [a small keg for liquors] rid off by a line 
in the Harbour, which he ordered to be taken 
up, and opening of it found a Letter, which gave 
him an account that the Ships were gone home 
for Boston. Then he proceeded and went to 
Penobscot " ^ and so home. 

Though oft-repeated experience convinced the 
Massachusetts authorities that one might as well 
chase shadows as try to catch Indians in the wilds 
of the Maine woods and along the deeply indented 
shores, yet the expeditions that went in pursuit 
of the elusive marauders undoubtedly had some 
negative results. They helped to keep the sav- 
ages scattered and to prevent the gathering of 
the war-parties. As a rule the New England men 
were no match in the frontier fighting for the 
nimble French and Indians. They were brave 
and stubborn, but slow in movement, and quite 
as slack in discipline as their enemies. Their 
whaleboats could not catch the light Indian 
canoes, and in the march through swamp and for- 
est the naked savages played around the flanks 

1 Church's Eastern Expeditions, p. 120. 



PEMETIC 95 

of the burdened militia. Burning the deserted 
wigwams was hke burning so much brushwood. 
They were almost as easy to rebuild as to de- 
stroy. Yet so urgent was the distress of the 
border and so great the hope of striking some 
final blow, that year after year New England 
sent her levies into the northern wilds to garri- 
son the outposts or to pursue the bands that 
so quickly disappeared from their haunts. One 
other of these expeditions seems to have ranged 
as far east as Mount Desert. In the winter of 
1722-23 Colonel Thomas Westbrook^ led three 
hundred men against the Penobscots. His letters 
and reports are printed in the " New England 
Historical and Genealogical Register" (vol. xliv). 
On February 27, 1723, he wrote to the gov- 
ernor from Burnt Coat Harbor as follows : — 

1 Thomas Westbrook was a native and leading citizen of 
Portsmouth, N. H. He was an extensive trader, a shipper of 
lumber, the agent of the English government in getting out 
masts for the navy, a large employer of labor, and an officer in 
the militia. In 1721 he led a military expedition against the 
Norridgewock Indians on the Kennebec, and in 1722 against the 
villages on the Penobscot. Both expeditions were futile. In 
1727 Colonel Westbrook moved to Casco Bay, settling at Stroud- 
water. His speculations in land brought financial disaster upon 
him, and he died in 1744. The town of Westbrook, near Portland, 
was named for him. From 1720 to 1740 he was influential in all 
the affairs of church and state in northern New England. See 
his reports quoted above and also Mass. Hist. Coll. second series, 
viii, and Willis's Hist, of Portland. 



96 MOUNT DESERT 

" May it Please Your Honor : 

These are to give you a short account of 
my proceedings since my last, which as on the 
tenth of this instant, since which we have ranged 
amongst the islands and on the mainland, be- 
tween Kennebec river and the eastermost side 
of Mount Desert bay, and have met with nothing 
worth your notice, save numbers of wigwams on 
almost every island and the mainland where we 
have ranged which, we judge, were deserted in 
the fall ; two French letters inclosed which were 
found in John Deny's house ; as also two small 
fire-places at the head of Mount Desert bay, 
which, we judge, had been made about three or 
four days ; supposing there might have been 
four or five men who, we judge, may no longer 
abode there than just to refresh themselves. We 
now lie at Burncoat Harbor and are ready to 
proceed to Penobscot, waiting only for wind and 
weather, proposing after my return from Penob- 
scot to send you a complete journal of my pro- 
ceedings." 

Once more the veil of silence lifts to reveal the 
tragedy of our island history. This is recorded 
in the story of the wreck of the ship Grand 
Design in the year 1740. This ship was a vessel 
of two or three hundred tons, bearing a consid- 
erable company from the north of Ireland who 
were intending to settle in Pennsylvania. Many 



PEMETIC 97 

were persons of station and wealth, and some of 
them had already established themselves in Penn- 
sylvania and were returning to their homes. The 
ship was driven out of its course by a southerly 
gale, and finally was flung ashore on Long Ledge 
off the southeastern end of Mount Desert and at 
the entrance to the Western Way. The ship's 
company escaped in the boats and landed in the 
cove now known as Ship Harbor. The story of 
the rescue of the people is thus told by Mr. 
Cyrus Eaton in his " Annals of Warren, Me." ^ 
" It was at or about this time that letters were 
brought by the Indians from some shipwrecked 
persons on Mount Desert who were suffering 
every extremity and dying with hunger. The 
Indians had given them every aid that they 
could, and now came to this settlement and that 
at Damariscotta for further assistance. Measures 
were immediately concerted by the people of 
these two places and a vessel with provisions dis- 
patched to their relief." It appears that the ship- 
wrecked company, after saving all they could 
from the wreck, and providing for themselves 
such shelter as they could, dispatched a party of 
young men to the mainland in hopes of finding 
some settlement. Nothing was ever heard after- 
wards of this searching party. The rest waited 
through weary months of disappointment, expos- 

1 Cyrus Eaton, Annals of Warren, Me., second edition, pp. 
63-65. 



98 MOUNT DESERT 

ure, and starvation, relieved only by the uncer- 
tain resources of the sea and the wilderness. At 
length a party of Indians came to the island, and 
though without an interpreter, an exchange was 
made of a few articles of food for clothing and 
other things. It was these Indians who carried 
word to Warren. The vessel sent to their relief 
brought some provisions, but these were soon ex- 
hausted, and the shipwrecked people reached the 
settlements on the St. George River in a famish- 
ing condition. 

Among the suffering passengers of the Grand 
Design were a Mrs. Gallaway and a Mrs. Sherrar, 
who had not long been married when they left 
Ireland. The former had a child three months 
old. Both the husbands died of starvation, and 
the two women dug the graves and buried the 
bodies, " there being no men among the remain- 
ing to give assistance." The sequel to their story 
is to be found in the genealogy of the Gamble 
family. Archibald Gamble, a young Irishman, 
had recently settled on a farm at St. George's, 
now a part of Warren, and John McCarter had set- 
tled at McCarter's Point, now a part of Gushing. 
These two young men sought marriage with Mrs. 
Gallaway and Mrs. Sherrar. In their loneliness 
in a strange land they each accepted the offer of 
their former countrymen. Mrs. Gamble became 
the mother of children whose descendants number 
a hundred families of different names in Knox 





14 -^^2^^^ • -^ 





Ar Sllir HARBOR 



PEMETIC 99 

County. The descendants of the McCarter union 
are almost as many. 

The wreck of the Grand Design is probably the 
basis of all the legends relating to wrecked ves- 
sels in Ship Harbor. The story shows the Indians 
under a friendlier aspect than most of the border 
legends. Instead of ruthlessly destroying the 
helpless survivors of the wreck and making off 
with their goods, the Indians kept faith, and not 
only bartered some of their scanty supply of food, 
but faithfully carried news of the distressed com- 
pany to the far-off settlements at St. George's. 

It remains only to repeat that the annals of the 
first permanent white settlers on Mount Desert in 
the years following 1762 contain no allusions to 
the Indians. The settlers were indeed attracted 
to the region largely because it had been so com- 
pletely cleared of savage foes. Since the modern 
summer colony has peopled the headlands and 
shores of the islands, the descendants of the 
Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes have come 
back to their camping grounds, not to hunt and 
fish, but to sell their wares, basket-work, toy 
canoes, bows and arrows, fancy moccasins and 
dried skins. They form a picturesque feature of 
the summer life, as well as a link with the island's 
historic past. 



L.OFa 



IV 

THE TORY AND REFUGEE 
PROPRIETORS 



Then I unbar the doors: my paths lead out 

The exodus of nations: I disperse 

Men to all shores that front the hoary main. 

I too have arts and sorceries; 

Illusion dwells forever with the wave. 

I know what spells are laid. Leave me to deal 

With credulous and imaginative man; 

For, though he scoop my water in his palm, 

A few rods off he deems it gems and clouds. 

Planting strange fruits and sunshine on the shore, 

I make some coast alluring, some lone isle, 

To distant men, who must go there, or die. 

Emerson. 



THE TORY AND REFUGEE 
PROPRIETORS 

The century and a half of conflict between France 
and England for the possession of Acadia and 
eastern Maine was settled by Wolfe's victory on 
the Plains of Abraham (September 13, 1759). 
The treaty which ended the long warfare was 
the sio'nal that the whole northeastern seacoast 
was open for English settlement. In 1759 and 
for several years afterwards the tide of immigra- 
tion from the older settlements of New England 
set strongly eastward. Already some of the 
towns of Massachusetts had voted in town meet- 
ing that "there was no more land within the 
town limits than they needed for their own in- 
habitants." It is recorded that in 1759 two hun- 
dred immigrants went to Nova Scotia from Bos- 
ton, one hundred and eighty from Plymouth, and 
a hundred from New London. Later the bays 
and rivers of eastern Maine began to be explored. 
A whole fleet of sloops and fishing vessels sailed 
from the Massachusetts shores, bringing a hardy 
race of settlers into every cove and harbor from 
Pemaquid to St. Croix. It was emphatically a 
family exodus, and its importance has not been 
realized by historians. It was the first of the 



104 MOUNT DESERT 

great migrations which have by steady advances 
won the continent for EngHsh-speaking civiHza- 
tion, and it was the only migration that went 
eastward rather than westward. In the summers 
of 1760 and 1761 hundreds of men were hasten- 
ing to Maine by every kind of craft that would 
float. The new free lands were an irresistible 
bait, the harbors were unequaled, the great 
woods promised inexhaustible supplies of timber, 
the waters teemed with fish, and the rushing 
streams gave power for grist and lumber mills. 
As a rule the men came in the first summer, 
chose a site for habitation, and made a clearing. 
The next summer the family came, usually two 
or three families together, and lived in the ves- 
sels until the log houses were built. This is the 
story of the founding of all the shore towns east 
of Penobscot Bay. 

Such a movement could hardly escape the no- 
tice of the government at Boston or fail to excite 
the interest of the merchants. Foremost in in- 
terest and activity was the governor, Francis 
Bernard. Bernard was a worthy and upright 
English gentleman, born in 1714, a graduate of 
Oxford, appointed governor of New Jersey in 
1758 and transferred to Massachusetts in 1760. 
He was not only interested in the eastern lands 
because they offered opportunity of profitable 
investment, but also because he was anxious to 
claim and hold the province of Maine for Massa- 



I 



THE BERNARD GRANT 105 

chusetts. His financial circumstances were at the 
time not altogether fortunate. His own tastes 
and his connection with noble English families 
had led him to adopt a scale of living more pre- 
tentious than the preceding governors, while at 
the same time his revenues were not increased. 
He had further been under additional burden in 
his change from the governorship of New Jersey 
to that of Massachusetts, for by the death of the 
king, George the Second, just at that time, he 
had been obliged to pay the large fee required 
for a new commission from George the Third. 
When he applied to the General Court for some 
relief, he was told that land was more abundant 
than money and accordingly he made petition 
for a grant of eastern lands. 

On February 27, 1762, the General Court of 
Massachusetts made a grant to Governor Bernard 
of one half of the island of Mount Desert in con- 
sideration of "his extraordinary services." This 
phrase probably refers to a somewhat elaborate 
legal paper which the governor prepared as a 
statement of the facts upon which the Massachu- 
setts title to the lands between Penobscot and 
St. Croix depended as against the claims of Nova 
Scotia.^ 

This paper shows that Governor Bernard was 
a trained lawyer. He argued the right of Massa- 
chusetts from history, from the submission of the 
1 Sparks MSS. vol. x, p. 83. 



106 MOUNT DESERT 

Indians and the treaties with them, from " law, 
equity, and policy." He showed that the Massa- 
chusetts ownership was further implied in the 
recent building by the province of Fort Pownall 
at the mouth of the Penobscot River, of which he 
said : " The province has heretofore been pre- 
vented from settling this country by the contin- 
ued intrigues of the French among the Indians, 
but had determined to do it at the end of the 
war. For this purpose in 1749 Governor Pow- 
nall with a large armed force erected a very re- 
spectable fort on the Penobscot and took formal 
possession of the country in the right of Massa- 
chusetts." ^ 

This argument might well pass with the Gen- 
eral Court as " an extraordinary service," for it 
was in the line of the ambitions of Massachusetts 
to extend eastward as far as the St. Croix River. 
What was more fitting than to reward the zealous 
advocate of this claim by granting him a part of 

^ Governor Pownall, after building the fort, " proceeded with 
an armed body above the Falls, hoisted the king's colors, which 
were saluted by artillery at sunset. Thereon his excellency or- 
dered a lead plate inscribed : * May 23rd, 1750, Province of 
Massachusetts Bay, Penobscot, dominion of Great Britain, Pos- 
session confirmed by Thomas Pownall, Governor,' " to be buried 
in the land on the east side of the river Penobscot. 

Governor Pownall's own record of this act is contained in his 
journal. " I buried said plate at the root of a large white birch 
tree, three large trunks springing from the one root. Tlie tree 
is at the top of a very high piked hill ou the east side of the 
river about three miles above marine navigation." 



THE BERNARD GRANT 107 

one of the new townships to be created east of the 
Penobscot ? No doubt was made that the home 
government in England would confirm such a 
grant to its favored servant. 

In September of 1762, therefore, Governor 
Bernard prepared to visit his new possessions at 
Mount Desert and to promote the settlement of 
the island. He was wont to do things in a stately 
fashion, so he started from Castle William with 
a considerable suite. Five days before, he dis- 
patched in a small schooner two surveyors, Na- 
than Jones and Borachias Mason, whose maps and 
records are still in existence. The journal of Gov- 
ernor Bernard's voyage, found in the Sparks 
Manuscripts, might be the log book of a yachting 
cruise to-day. It reads as follows : — 

" September 28th, 1762. I went on board the 
sloop Massachusetts lying off Castle William in 
Boston Bay at 5 p. m., weighed anchor, and with 
wind southeast passed Deer Island on the left. 

" Sept. 29. Morning hazy. Passed Cape Ann 
by reckoning at 5 a. m., stood for Portsmouth, 
looked for Isles of Shoals. A thick fog arose, 
bore out to sea, keeping a good offing to avoid 
rock called Boone Island Ledge. Saw it two miles 
distant at 2 p. m. Weather cleared up, a fresh 
gale arose from south to east, bore for Cape Por- 
poise with all the sail we could set, passed into 
harbour in narrow channel between frightful 
rocks and came to anchor at four o'clock. Found 



108 MOUNT DESERT 

several fishermen there who had put in for shelter 
who supplied us with excellent fish for our dinner. 
Night windy and rainy, lay very quiet though 
there was a great storm at sea. 

" Sept. 30. Morning hazy : cleared up. At 3 
A. M. went out with small breeze at northwest, 
which failing in the narrow passage we were in 
danger of being flung upon the rocks, but the 
breeze freshening carried us out. Very little wind 
and great rowl of sea : put out lines and caught 
some cod and haddock. At noon a fresh breeze 
arose from West. Course East, Northeast, passed 
Wood Islands, Cape Elizabeth, Segwdn Island, 
wind fair, but a great swell of sea. At 6, altered 
our course to East by North, stood for Monhig- 
gon Island. Breeze freshened about midnight. 

" Oct. 1. At daybreak entered Penobscot Bay : 
passed the Musselridges and the Owl's head on 
the left, and Fox Island on the right. Between 
Fox Islands saw Mt. Desart hills at near 30 miles 
distant. Passed Long Island on the left. At the 
end thereof saw Ft. Pownall at six miles distant. 
A fresh gale from the Northwest, Anchored at 
11. The Fort saluted us with eleven guns, we 
returned seven guns. Went on shore, dined at 
the Fort, spent the afternoon reconnoitering the 
country. Went on board in the evening. 

"Oct. 2. Weighed anchor at 7 a. m. Fresh 
gale from the Northwest ; passed by many islands 
on the right, which with the continent on the left 



THE BERNAKD GRANT 109 

formed many pleasant sounds and bays. Came to 
Neskeag Point, thirty miles from Ft. Pownall. 
Found several vessels there, among which was a 
schooner with my surveyors on board, who left 
Boston five days before me. Took them on board 
and with a pilot proceeded for Mount desart. 
Arrived there at 3 o'clock, but the wind being 
against us we were two hours turning into the 
harbor. At first we came into a spacious bay 
formed by land of the great island on the left 
and of the Cranberry islands on the right. To- 
ward the end of this bay, which we call the Great 
Harbour, we turned into a smaller bay called 
the southwest harbour. This last is about a 
mile long and three fourths of a mile wide. On 
the north side of it is a narrow opening to a river 
or sound which runs into the island eight miles 
and is visible in a straight line with uneven 
shores for nearly the whole length. We anchored 
about the middle of the Southwest Harbour 
about 5 p. M, 

" Oct. 3. After breakfast went on shore at the 
head of the bay and went into the woods by a 
compass line for about half a mile. Found a path 
which led back to the Harbour. This proved to 
be a passage to the salt marshes. In the after- 
noon some people came on board, who informed 
us that four families were settled upon one of the 
Cranberry Islands, and two families at the head 
of the river, eight miles from our station. 



110 MOUNT DESERT 

" Oct. 4. We formed two sets of surveyors. I 
and Lieutenant Miller took charge of the one, 
and ]Mr. Jones, my surveyor, had the charge of 
the other. We began at a point at the head of 
the South West Harbour, proceeded in different 
courses, and surveyed the whole harbour except 
some part on the south side. 

" Oct. 5. It rained all the morning. We com- 
pared our observations and protracted the survey ; 
in the afternoon surveyed a cove in the North 
River. 

" Oct. 6. I and Lieut. Miller surveyed the re- 
mainder of the South West Harbour and a con- 
siderable part of the Great Harbour. Mr. Jones 
traced and measured the path to the Bass Bay 
Creek and found there many haycocks. In the 
afternoon we made some general observations and 
corrected our former surveys. The gunners had 
good luck, plenty of duck, teal, partridge, etc. 

" Oct. 7. Took an observation of the sunrising. 
Went up the river, a fine channel having several 
openings and bays of different breadths from a 
mile to a quarter of a mile in breadth. We 
passed through several hills covered with wood 
of different sorts. In some places the rocks were 
almost perpendicular to a great height. The 
general course of this river is North, 5 degrees 
east, and it is not less than eight miles long in a 
straight line. At the end of it we turned into a 
bay, and there saw a settlement in a lesser bay. 



THE BERNARD GRANT 111 

We went on shore and into Somes's log house, 
found it neat and convenient, though not quite 
furnished, and in it a notable woman with four 
pretty girls, clean and orderly. Near it were 
many fish drying there. From there we went to 
a beaver pond where we had an opportunity to 
observe the artificialness of their dams and their 
manner of cutting down trees to make them. We 
returned to our sloop about four o'clock ; it must 
be eight miles distant. The gunners brought in 
plenty of ducks and partridges. 

" Oct. 8. We observed sunrising but could not 
take his amplitude by reason of clouds near the 
horizon. Mr. Miller surveyed the island on the 
east side of the river. Mr. Jones ran the base 
line of the intended township. I went through 
the woods to the creek of Bass Bay. We went 
about a mile on the salt meadow, found it fine, 
the hay remaining there good, and the creek a 
pretty rivulet capable of receiving considerable 
vessels. The meadow on each side being a fur- 
long or two wide, and the upland having a gentle 
decline to it. In the afternoon Mr. Jones finished 
his line and we gathered various plants in the 
woods. In the evening I received several persons 
on board proposing to be settlers, and it was re- 
solved to sail the next morning if the wind would 
permit. 

" Oct. 9. At half after eight we weighed anchor; 
stood for the sea in a course South, Southwest, 



112 MOUNT DESERT 

through several islands ; thence by course West 
by South to Holt Island [Isle au Haut], ten 
leagues from Mt. Desert Harbour. At half past 
one wind fell to a fair breeze ; passed Martinicus 
Island at 5, Metennick Island at 12 ; bright, 
fine, and calm. 

" Oct. 10. Sloop rolled very much till 5. When 
passing Segwin Island a fresh breeze came from 
Northeast. Arrived at Falmouth channel half 
after eight, just twenty-four hours from Mt. desart. 
rained hard. We came to anchor at Falmouth 
half after ten. I went on shore, dined at Col. 
Waldo's and lay there. 

" Oct. 11. We went about the town, a very 
growing place, some fine houses, three building, 
many vessels, among which were some ships 
upon the stocks. Were saluted by the Fort with 
five guns and by a ship in the harbor with seven. 
Our sloop returned five guns. We dined at Col. 
Waldo's, slept at Capt. Rosses and went on board 
at half past ten. 

" Oct. 12. We weighed anchor at half past 
eight, saluted the town with five guns, kept 
within sight of the shore all the way, and anchored 
near the Fort island in Piscataway about three 
miles from Portsmouth at five o'clock. The Fort 
hailed us to know if I was on board. At six 
Gov. Wentworth's barge came alongside to carry 
me to his house about three miles from the sloop 
and two from Portsmouth. 



THE BERNARD GRANT 113 

" Oct. 13. I went to Portsmouth in my own 
boat, the boats crew being in their uniform of red 
faced with blue ; was received at the wharf by 
several gentlemen and conducted to Mr. Went- 
worth's house. At 3, Mrs. Bernard arrived in the 
charriot. 

" Oct. 14. We passed an agreeable day at 
Portsmouth. The 15th, set out in the charriot 
for Boston." ^ 

^ Besides this journal, the Bernard papers in the Harvard Col- 
lege Library contain a description of Mount Desert at the time 
of the governor's visit. It is written in Latin and ascribed to 
" an officer of the Cygnet," doubtless a naval officer in the gov- 
ernor's suite. The translation runs as follows : — 

" Mount Desert is a large mountainous island lying 10 leagues 
west from the Island of Grand Mannan in the mouth of the Bay 
of Funday, it is in the Lattitude 44, 35 North, and Longitude 67, 
20 West. It appears as the Continent from the Sea, but is di- 
vided from it by an arm running between it and the Main, but at 
low water may be crossed by a narrow neck near the West end 
as the Inhabitants report. Its natural Productions are Oak, 
Beech, Maple, and all sots of Spruce and Pines to a large Di- 
mention, viz : 34 inches diameter. Ash, Poplar, birch of all sorts, 
white Cedar of a large Size, Sasafrass, and many other sorts of 
wood, we know no name for a very great variety of Shrubbs, 
among which is the Filbert. Fruits, such as Rasberrys, Straw- 
berrys, Cranberrys of two Sorts, Gooseberrys and Currants. It 
has all sots of soil, such as dry, wet, rich, poor and barren ; with 
great Quantitys of Marsh, a number of Ponds, with runs fit for 
mills. Quantitys of Marble, and its generally thought from the 
appearance of many Parts of the Land there are Iron and Cop- 
per Ore. Its Inhabitants of the Brute Creation are Moose, Deer, 
Bear, fox. Wolf, Otter, Beaver, martins. Wild Cat, and many 
other Animals of the fur kind, all kinds of wild fowl. Hares, 
Partridges brown and black. But the most valuable part of this 
Island is the extraordinary fine Harbour in it, which is formed 
by the Islands as described on the annext Sketch of it. Codfish 



114 MOUNT DESERT 

This journal is especially interesting because 
it gives the first information about the coming 
of permanent settlers to the island. The govern- 
or's entry of October 3 mentions two families 

is ever taken in any Quantitys with very convenient Beaches for 
drying and curing them. Shellfish of all sorts except the oyster, 
none of which we saw, fine Prawns and Shrimps. There lies 
from it a rock above Water, about 8 Leagues from the foot of 
the great Islands, and 5 Leagues from the Duck Islands, which 
is the nearest Land to it ; this rock is dangerous from its being 
deep Water both within and without it, so that sounding is no 
warning, you will have 40, 45, and 50 fathom within half a mile 
of it, it is steep to all sides except to the East Point of it, where 
it runs off foul about Pistol Shot, but dries at low water ; the 
Tide near this rock setts strong in and out the Bay of Funday, 
its to be seen about 3 Leagues, and appears white from being 
always covered with gannetts which breed and roost there. Its 
length is 500 fathoms from the N. E. Point to the S. W. Point, 
and by an observation we took on it, is in the Lattitude 44, 08 N. 
I shall say no more of it, than that a good look out is necessary, 
and without you strike itself, there is little or no danger of being 
very near it, and the night is the most dangerous Time to see it. 
A Beacon built of Stone of which the rock itself will furnish, 
about 50 or GO feet high, would render it of little danger ; the 
Harbour is very convenient for naval Equipments from the 
Number of fine anchoring places and Islands, a very fine rendez- 
vous for fleets and Transports in case of an expedition to the 
West Indies, as each division of men of war and Transports may 
have different places to wood and water in, and Islands enough 
for encampment and Refreshments of men, without any danger 
of desertion or Irregularity. The King's Dock yards might be 
supplied for many years with Sparrs from 27 inches and down- 
wards to about hook span, Docks may be easily made for Ships 
of the greatest Draught of Water The above Island is about 
30 miles coastways, and 90 miles in Circumference not including 
all its lesser Islands within a League of its Shores, which are 
supposed to be included in the grant of it to Governor Bernard 
of Massachusetts Bay by that Colony. 

" N. B. There are great Quantitys of Pease sufficient to feed 















///., . , 



^...,<. ..A. 



<^ 









•/^. ,^. 












- . /i. 



^y- 



-^ 












"Z'^/ ^.>^_ 



^... 



6/ 















/. 



LATIN DESCRIPTION 



THE BERNARD GRANT 115 

already established " at the head of the river," 
and the entry of October 7 gives the account of 
his trip up " the river," which we now call Somes 
Sound, and his visit to Somes's log house with the 
" notable woman with four pretty girls." Abra- 
ham Somes was undoubtedly the pioneer settler on 
Mount Desert. He came in 1761 from Glouces- 
ter in his Chebacco boat and cut a load of bar- 
rel staves for the Gloucester fishermen. The 
next summer he brought his wife Hannah (Her- 
rick) and four children and built, on what is now 
known as George Somes's Point, the log house in 
which Governor Bernard found them. James 
Richardson, also from Gloucester, came the same 
summer, with his wife and five children, and set- 
tled at Richardson's Cove. His was the second 
family mentioned by the governor as settled " at 
the head of the river." 

Governor Bernard encouraged settlement in 
every way in his power, though it is evident that 
his proprietary rights were not infrequently in 
conflict with the squatter rights established by 
the settlers. He selected Southwest Harbor as 
the centre of his operations because it was the 

innumerable Number of Herds and Cattle, a great Quantity of 
Cherries, both which are natural to the Islands. 

'• It ebbs and flows in these Harbours 21 feet at Spring Tides, 
and about 15 or 16 feet at common tides, which never run so 
strong but a boat may be sculled against it. Water is ever to be 
had in the dryest Seasons conveniently; the best anchoring 
ground in the world." 



116 MOUNT DESERT 

natural port for passing coasters and fishermen. 
There he caused a town site to be carefully sur- 
veyed and laid out in lots for sale. It is evident 
that he also built some houses there, for in 1785 
John Cockle, Esq., of Mount Desert, one of the 
holders of a Bernard lot, petitioned the General 
Court to confirm or change a grant he had from 
Bernard twelve years before, and asked that his 
land might be laid out " at the head of South 
West Harbor, commencing south of the old 
houses erected heretofore by Sir Francis Ber- 
nard." Bernard also evidently made preparations 
to build a mill, for John Peters,^ in the account 
of his survey of the island in 1789, wrote, " Now 
we begin a lot for James Richardson, beginning 
at a Cove about eighty rods and on the eastward 
of an old Mill-Dam formerly built by Governor 
Bernard." This Richardson lot was on the east- 
ern shore of the sound near the head. 

Governor Bernard's scheme for encouraging 

1 John Peters was born at Andover, Mass., August 18, 1741. 
He settled at Blue Hill, Maine, in 1765, aud died there August 
20, 1821, aged eighty years. He was a farmer and surveyor and 
was frequently employed by the Bingham estate and other own- 
ers of eastern lands to mark their boundaries. His surveys are 
the foundation for the majority of all the deeds recorded in the 
territory of the Penobscot Purchase and in Hancock and Wash- 
ington counties. He was for a generation a leading citizen of 
eastern Maine, enjoying the confidence and respect of a great 
circle of clients and friends. He was father of twelve children 
and thus the founder of one of the most serviceable and eminent 
families in Maine. For the Peters genealogy, see the Bangor 
Hist. Mag. i, 200, v, 207. 



THE BERNARD GRANT 117 

settlement was well devised. His offer to propos- 
ing settlers at Southwest Harbor shows the thor- 
oughness of his plans. 

" The plan of the Town which is laid out in 
that Island is calculated for trade and business, 
for which its situation, being in the direct course 
of all the vessels coasting along the shore and 
the great plenty of fish which will afford a staple 
commodity, make it very suitable. 

" The Lots of Settlers are therefore laid out 
with four acres each, upon which each settler will 
be obliged to build an house and settle a family. 
The rest of the land given for the encouragement 
of settlers will be in outlots as nearly accom- 
modated to the town as can be. Each settler of 
a family is to have 25 acres given to him free 
of all expense. This alone will afford sufficient 
lands for husbandry, as it is supposed much the 
greater part of the settlers will apply themselves 
to fishing and trade, for which their home lots 
alone will be abundantly sufficient. But if any 
families which make husbandry their business 
shall want more land, they shall be supplied as 
far as 25 acres each at a dollar an acre. 

" The Duties required of Settlers are that they 
settle a family upon the home lot, building a 
house within a year and clearing the home lot 
within three years. 

" Mines of metal or coal and quarries of lime 



118 MOUNT DESERT 

stone will be referred to tlie proprietor and also 
timber trees upon lands unleased." ^ 

All Governor Bernard's steps to invite settle- 
ment on the island were made with the assump- 
tion that the home government would readily 
confirm the grant made by the Massachusetts 
representatives. But there was obstruction in 
the Colonial Office in London, caused, as was 
afterwards learned, by the desire of Nova Scotia 
to have its territory extended westward to the 
Penobscot. The governor waited long after his 
visit to the island, and meanwdiile expended not 
a small sum on his projected improvements there, 
yet no word came from the home government 
sanctioning his rights. It was an awkward posi- 
tion, for he claimed land which might not after 
all be his, and was spending freely where he 
might not reap again. He resolved to make 
appeal directly to the king,- and did so in an 
elaborate document dated October, 1764.^ 

^ Very similar agreements are suggested in a document signed 
by Governor Bernard and dated " Mountdesert, Sept. 8, 1764," 
entitled " Proposals for settling a colony of Germans at a Town 
in the Island of Mouutdesert, made to Mr. John Martin Shafter 
and Mr. John Most by Gov. Bernard Proprietor of the Island." 
This document, preserved in the Sparks Collection, is printed in 
the Bangor Historical Magazine, v, 1. Nothing seems to have 
come of the proposals. 

' " A statement of the Grant of the Island of Mount Desert 
to Francis Bernard and the consideration for which it was made. 

" Governor Bernard opened his first Commission of Governor 

3 Sparks MSS. vol. x, p. 216. 




PLAN OF GOV. BERNARD'S TOWN SITE 



THE BERNARD GRANT 119 

This appeal brought at last the delayed confir- 
mation, and the governor hastened to appoint 
an agent to take charge of his Mount Desert 

of Massachusetts Bay on August 2, 1760 and on the 25th of Oc- 
tober following his Majesty King George the Second died. By 
which means he was obliged to take out a new commission at the 
expense of four hundred pounds without having allowance for 
Chappel, plate, etc. 

" Upon his entering upon the Government he found it neces- 
sary to make an additional building to the Governor's apartment 
at Castle William, and another building to the Governor's house 
at Boston, both of which cost him two hundred pounds. Upon 
his mentioning to some of the members that the Assembly should 
make him a compensation for the extraordinary charge of a 
second commission immediately following the first and the ex- 
penses of the improvements of the Castle and the province house, 
he was told that it would be much easier to get a grant of lands 
than of money ; and he was advised to take his compensation in 
the former way. 

" He acquiesced in this. It was at first proposed that he should 
have a grant of lands in old Massachusetts where the province 
has an absolute property in the lands, and if he could have fore- 
seen that a confirmation of the grant would have met with any dif- 
ficulty, he should have certainly taken a grant of land in that part 
of the country where a confirmation would not have been wanted. 

" But having no idea of any difficulty in obtaining a confirma- 
tion, and the assembly being at that time desirous of making a 
settlement in the Bay of Penobscot, he consented to take his 
compensation in a grant of the Island of Mount Desert, which 
had been intended to make one of the towns to be laid out there. 

" The Grant accordingly past the House on the 27th of Feb- 
ruary, 1762 ; and though to make it appear more honorable it 
is said to be in consideration of the extraordinary services of the 
Governor, yet the real consideration was to reimburse him the 
forementioned expenses: without which most probably he should 
neither have asked for, nor the assembly have offered him a 
grant of lands. For as for the island itself, he was totally unac- 
quainted with it at the time it was proposed to him. 

" Upon his informing the Lords of trade of this grant and the 



120 MOUNT DESERT 

property. A commission was issued to Joseph 
Chad wick of Fort Pownall, appointing him the 
governor's attorney and bailiff to have charge 
of his interests on the Island. On receipt of 
his commission Mr. Chadwick went to Mount 
Desert and mapped the island. Unfortunately 
his plans have been lost, but the description 

occasion of making it they were pleased by this letter of March 
11, 1763, to write to him in the following words : ' We can have 
no objection to your acceptance of this grant as a testimony of 
the approbation and favour of that province in whose service 
and in the conduct of whose affairs you have manifested so much 
zeal and capacity ; nor should we have delayed our Representa- 
tion of It to the Crown if the deed itself had been with us.' And 
he, about this and for some time after, received frequent assur- 
ances that the grant would be speedily confirmed. 

"Under these encouragements he thought he might safely 
venture to make preparations for settling the Island. And ac- 
cordingly he has had the whole surveyed and has built some 
houses and erected a saw mill and marked out a town, etc., at 
the expense of four or five hundred pounds. 

" But now upon account of the delay of the confirmation some 
disorderly people in the neighborhood have taken possession of 
the Island, broken down the houses, destroyed the timbers, and 
still continue to make great havoc and waste without his being 
able to redress himself for want of the completion of his title. 

"The Island by the principal and interest of the foremen - 
tioned sums may be reckoned to have cost him already fifteen 
hundred pounds, which is probably more than it would sell for, 
if put to sale. 

" He cannot therefore entertain a thought that, after having 
served so long and (he hopes he may add) so faithfully in a gov- 
ernment whose annual Income, at best, produces a bare subsist- 
ence and of late years has fallen short a deal, he shall be left 
to bear so heavy a loss from what was intended for his benefit. 
But though he has no reason to suppose that the intentions 
towards him are other than favorable he has suffered a great 
deal and continues to suffer by the delay of this business." 



THE BERNARD GRANT 121 

which accompanied them has been preserved 
in the Sparks Manuscripts. The report refers 
constantly to the numbers or letters which are 
used to identify places on the lost map, but the 
descriptions are so accurate that most of the lo- 
calities can be readily recognized.^ 

Mr. Chadwick made a careful exploration of 
the whole island, following the shores first from 
Southwest Harbor up the west bank of the sound, 
noting the brooks and water powers, the fertile 
land at Fernald's Point, and the ledges or 
" quarry of stone of a marvel kind," where Hall's 
quarries now are. Then he went round the is- 
land, starting from Bass Harbor, describing there 
the marshes which had been " improved by John 
Robertson, settled on an island in the neighbor- 
hood," while the marsh at Goose Cove had been 
"improved by Ebenezer Herrick of Naskeag." 
He remarks that " Shadrick Watson, John Black, 
Ebenezer Herrick, and others of Naskeag . . . 
cut 25 load of hay last year and are some of 
them mowing the same ground this year." 

Then he went round the northern shores. The 
north side of Clark's Cove seemed to him a " valu- 
able track of Land for a Settlement." Duck Brook 
seemed a " stream large enough for a Saw Mill. 
. . . The shore is Mountainous Rough lands 
which Continue from the Shore up the stream 

1 Mr. Chadwick's report is printed, with notes by Mr. E. M. 
Hamor, in the Maine Historical Magazine, formerly Bangor His- 
torical Magazine, vol. ix, p. 124. 



122 MOUNT DESERT 

f of a mile which is not practicable for Roads. 
A Good tract of Land well timbered." At what 
is apparently Cromwell's Harbor, he mentions " a 
Mill Stream which is the place Capt. Jones pro- 
poses to Build a Saw Mill for the Governor. . . . 
some objections may be made to this stream viz : 
That the Stream is not large enough to keep a 
Saw Mill going the year Round But only During 
the time of freshets. That the Harbour is Smal 
and laying in that part of the Island towards the 
open Sea — Vessels may be in danger in bad 
weather. But (is said) a Vessel from the West- 
ward lay in the Harbour last winter while her 
Crew made Shingles on Shore." So he went on 
by Otter Creek and Seal Harbor, and up the east 
bank of the sound. The Report, which is dated 
August 29, 1768, ends with a Memorandum: 
" There are Some Dificultyes arising amongst 
the Settlers for forms of Roads and Division 
Lines of their Lands. As there are Sundry peo- 
ple that propose to apply for Settlements on the 
Island which may mak further deficultys." 

But all Governor Bernard's plans were inter- 
rupted by the troubles which preceded the out- 
break of the Revolution. He was a zealous cham- 
pion of British authority in America and his 
conduct when the Stamp Act riots occurred, and 
in the matter of the seizure of John Hancock's 
sloop Liberty in 1768 for alleged infraction 
of the revenue laws, at last aroused the people of 



THE BERNARD GRANT 123 

Boston. A meeting was held in the Old South 
Meeting House June 14, 1768, and a committee 
of twenty-one appointed to wait upon the gov- 
ernor and protest against his measures. On this 
committee there served John Hancock, James 
Otis, Joseph Warren, Samuel Adams, and Josiah 
Quincy. It is a curious illustration of orderly 
rebellion when we picture this committee pro- 
ceeding to Jamaica Plain in a procession of 
eleven chaises and calling upon the governor. 
He received them courteously, offered them re- 
freshment, and made them promises which he 
apparently did not mean to keep. 

His recall came suddenly in the next year,^ and 
he left his beautiful home on the bank of Jamaica 
Pond, July 3, 1769, and the next day embarked 
for England. As he departed the bells were rung, 

^ Whereas our trusty and well beloved Francis Bernard, Es- 
quire, our Captain General and Governor in Chief of our Pro- 
vince in the Massachusetts Bay, in America, hath humbly repre- 
sented unto us that his private affairs may require his residence 
for some time in this our kingdom, and therefore hath humbly 
requested that we would be pleased to grant him a discretionary 
leave to be absent from his Government and to permit him to 
return into this Our Kingdom of Great Britain. 

We are graciously pleased to condescend to his Request and 
accordingly do, by these Presents, give and grant unto him, the 
said Francis Bernard, our full and free Leave, License and Per- 
mission to come from his Said Government of the Massachusetts 
Bay into this our Kingdom and to remain here until our further 
pleasure shall be signified. 

Given at our Court at St. James, this twenty second day 
of June 1768 in the eighth year of our Reign. 
By his Majesty's Command 

Hillsborough. 



124 MOUNT DESERT 

cannon were fired from the wharves, the Liberty 
Tree made gay with flags, and at midnight great 
bonfires were kindled on Fort Hill.^ With all his 

1 The following account is taken from the Boston News.Letler 
of August 7, 1769 : " Tuesday last embarked on board his Ma- 
jesty's Ship the Rippon, sir Francis Bernard of Nettleham, Bart., 
■who for nine Years past has been a Scourge to this Province, a 
Curse to North America, and a Plague to the whole Empire, He 
having sagely fixed on the First of August, the Day of the Ele- 
vation of the House of Hanover to the British Throne, for the 
Time of his Departure, there were four Causes of public Rejoi- 
cing: 1. The Accession of the present Royal Family. 2. That 
the King had been graciously pleased to recall a very bad Gov- 
ernor. 3. The sure and certain Hopes that a very good one will 
be sent out, and placed ir his Stead. 4. That a worse cannot be 
found on this Side — , if there. — On Monday Evening the Bar- 
onet, being unwilling to give himself and Friends, if he has any, 
the Trouble of a formal Leave, or the People an opportunity to 
hiss him off the stage, sneaked down to Castle William, where 
he lay that Night. The next Morning he was toated on board the 
Rippon, in a Canoe, a Tom-Cod Catcher or some other small 
Boat. The ship was soon under sail, but had not proceeded a 
League, before the Wind shifting, she came to Anchor, and lay 
Wind-bound till Friday Noon, when she sailed again with a fair 
Wind after her ; The Captain, Thomson, and the ship, both 
worthy a better Cargo. Should the Johns, on the rising of the 
first Storm, sign a round Robbin to the Captain to throw the 
Baronet overboard for fair Weather, and he find his way into a 
W^hale's Belly, it is hoped he will not be called out, dead or 
alive, within Soundings. — So soon as the Rippon was under Sail 
on Tuesday, the Cannon at the Castle were fired with Joy — the 
Union Flagg was displayed from Liberty Tree, where it was 
kept flying 'till Friday. — Colours were also flung from most of 
the Vessels in the Harbour And from the Tops of the Houses in 
Town. — The Bells were rang, and Cannon fired incessantly 'till 
Sunsett. — In the Evening there was a Bonfire on Fort-Hill, and 
another on the Heights of Charlestown. The general Joy of this 
City was soon diffused through the neighboring Towns, who gave 
Similar Demonstrations of it." 



THE BERNARD GRANT 125 

excellent qualities he had proved too wanting in 
tact and too hot-tempered to deal with a critical 
political situation. He should be remembered as 
a liberal benefactor of Harvard College, as the 
friend of many endeavors for public improvement, 
and as a courtly gentleman who regarded uncom- 
promising loyalty to his king as his first duty. 
It is recorded that he attended divine service in 
Brookline because the sermons were shorter than 
at Roxbury. He was knighted after his return 
to England and died in June, 1779. In his will, 
dated September 23, 1778, he devised the island 
of Mount Desert to trustees for his son John 
Bernard. 

But all Sir Francis's American estates had 
meanwhile been confiscated, and his heir had a 
weary time of it in securing his rights.^ He seems 
to have remained in America and to have fallen 
upon evil fortunes. He appears for a moment in 
a journal of General Rufus Putnam, who made a 
journey to Passamaquoddy Bay in 1784.^ In this 

1 The Act of the State of Massachusetts Bay to couflscate the 
estates of " certain notorious conspirators against the government 
and Liberties of the inhabitants of the late Province, now State of 
Massachusetts Bay," is dated April 30, 1779. 

2 This journal is in the Autobiography of General Putnam 
now in possession of Marietta College, Ohio. General Putnam 
records : " I left Boston, August 2, 1784, to engage in the survey 
of lands bordering on the Passamaquoddy Bay, and returned to 
Boston, Nov. 8, 1784. . . . 

" In 1785, the General Court being so well pleased with my ser- 
vices the year before, I was appointed one of the Committee for 



126 MOUNT DESERT 

journal General Putnam relates that he met at 
Pleasant Point, on Passamaquoddy Bay, a son of 
Governor Bernard. He found him in a small hut 
of his own building with only a little dog- for his 
companion. " He told us he intended making his 
home there. He had chosen a pleasant spot and 
cut a few trees, but it did not look as if it would 
ever be a farm under his care. Poor fellow ! We 
pitied him, he had probably never done a day's 
work in his life. He stayed there but a short time. 
I met him afterwards in Boston. It is said that 
he supposed his father's grant extended to St. 
Croix and that he went there to retain or hold 
possession." 

In that same year (1784) this John Bernard, 
calling himself a citizen of Bath in the Province 
of Maine, sent a petition to the General Court 
of Massachusetts praying for permission to take 
possession of the island of Mount Desert. This 
petition was accompanied by a certificate signed 
by many respectable persons of Bath, stating that 
Bernard " had conducted himself unexceptionally 
in his political and moral conduct during the late 
war . . . and had been a great sufferer by the 

the sale of Eastern Lands, and Superintendent of Surveys. Our 
party sailed from Beverly, June 14th, and arrived at Blue Hill 
Bay the 20th ; there we deposited some stores. We arrived at 
Machias Bay the 25th, and at Leighton's Point, Cobscoek Bay, 
on the 29th. We spent the season surveying the coast, islands 
and towns westward to Penobscot Bay and returned to Boston 
about Dec. 20, 1785." 



THE BERNARD GRANT 127 

forfeiture of his father's estate." The General 
Court, on June 23, 1785, accordingly passed a 
resolution as follows : — 

" The Committee upon the petition of John 
Bernard submits the following Resolve : 

" Whereas, John Bernard of Bath, in the 
County of Lincoln, hath produced to this Court 
ample testimony of the uniform consistence and 
propriety of his political conduct previous to, 
during and since the late war, and whereas the 
estate of his father Sir Francis Bernard, deceased, 
has been confiscated, to wit, the Island of Mt. 
Desart which was by the last will and testament 
of said deceased made previous to said confisca- 
tion, devised to said John, . . . and this Court 
viewing the conduct of said John as meretorious 
and commiserating his peculiar situation, and he 
having petitioned for a grant of the island afore- 
said, which this court considers in a degree rea- 
sonable, therefore resolved, tliat one moiety, or 
half part of the island of Mont Desart be and 
hereby is granted, and from the passing of this 
resolve shall ensure to the said John Bernard his 
heirs and assigns forever, to hold in fee simple, 
provided that said John shall convey to each per- 
son now in possession of lands, which may be a 
division of the aforesaid island, assigns to said 
John, such quantity thereof and upon such terms 
as the committee appointed by a resolve of the 
General Court passed Oct. 28, 1783, shall direct 



128 MOUNT DESERT 

within eighteen months from the passing of the 
resolve." 

Approved June 23, 1785, James Bowdoin, 
Governor. 

On July 6, 1785, John Bernard mortgaged 
this grant of half part of the island and at once 
went to England. He became Sir John Bernard, 
baronet, held office under the Crown in the Bar- 
badoes and St. Vincent, and died in 1809. 

Now another claimant for a grant of Mount 
Desert appeared. In 1786, the year after the 
resolution in favor of John Bernard, Monsieur 
Bartolemy de Gregoire and his wife, Maria 
Theresa, presented to the General Court of 
Massachusetts a petition laying claim to Mount 
Desert on account of the old French grant to 
Mme. de Gregoire's grandfather, Cadillac.^ The 
petitioners brought letters from Lafayette and, 
owing to these and the general sentiment in 
America at that time favorable to France, found 
an unexpected welcome. Of course their claim 
had not the slightest legal force, but the eastern 
lands were not held at a high value, and so, 
"without nice scrutiny," as the historian Sullivan 
says, but in a gush of sentiment, the legislature 
on July 6, 1787, passed a resolution granting to 
the De Gregoires all the lands on Mount Desert 

1 In this petition Cadillac is called Condillac. His own signa- 
ture, however, is plainly Cadillac. 



THE DE GREGOIRE GRANT 129 

that remained the property of the Commonwealth.^ 
De Gregoire, with his wife and three children, 

1 Commonwealth of Massachusetts : 

In Senate June 29, 1787. Whereas it appears to this court, 
that the land, claimed by Monsieur and Madame De. Gregoire, 
as described in their petition, were in April, 1691, granted to 
Monsieur De. La. Motte Cadillac, by his late most Christian ma- 
jesty Louis 14th, to hold to him as an estate of inheritance, and 
that said Madame De Gregoire, his granddaughter and direct 
heir at law of said De. La. Motte Cadillac, but whereas by long 
paper of possession, the legal title to the said lands under the 
said grant is lost to the heirs at law of the said Monsieur De. 
La. Motte Cadillac, and the Monsieur and Madame De. Gregoire 
have not any interest or estate now remaining therein but 
through the liberality and generosity of this court which are not 
hereafter to be drawn into precedent, and whereas it is the dis- 
position of the court to cultivate a mutual confidence and union 
between the subjects of his most Christian Majesty and the citi- 
zens of this state and to cement that confidence and union by 
every act of the most liberal justice not repugnant to the rights 
of their own citizens. It is therefore resolved that there be and 
hereby is granted to the said Monsieur and Madame De. Gre- 
goire, all such parts and parcels of Island of Mount Desert and 
the other Islands and tracts of land particularly described in the 
grant or patent of his late most Christian Majesty Louis 14, to 
said Monsieur De. La. Motte Cadillac, which now remains the 
property of this commonwealth, whether by original right, ces- 
sion, confiscation or forfeiture, to hold all the aforesaid parts 
and parcels of the said lands and Islands to them, the said Mon- 
sieur and Madame De Gregoire, their heirs and assigns forever, 
provided however that the committee for the sale of eastern 
lands be and they hereby are authorized and fully empowered 
to quiet to all or any possessors or claimers to the title of any 
parts of the lands herein described, all such parts and parcels 
thereof as they the said committee shall think necessary and 
expedient, and on such considerations and conditions as they the 
said committee shall judge equitable and just under all circum- 
stances, conformable to the precedents heretofore established 
with regard to settlers. 



130 MOUNT DESERT 

Pierre, Nicholas, and Marie, were naturalized on 
November 2, 1787,^ and soon after settled at 
Hull's Cove, where they built a rude house and a 
mill and went to farming. 

At first under the terms of the two grants the 
island was owned in common and undivided. At 
the term of the Supreme Court held in Boston 
the third Tuesday of June, 1788, De Gregoire 
and his wife presented a petition to have " their 
part or moiety of the Island called Mount Desert 
set off from John Bernard." At this time Ber- 
nard had been in England for several years, and 
" his attorney James Sullivan, Barrister at law," 
answered to the petition. The court appointed 
William Lithgow, Jr., of Georgetown, Nathaniel 
Thwing of Woolwich, and Stephen Jones ^ of 

And this grant is not to take effect and it shall not be lawful 
for the said Monsieur and Madame De. Gregoire to take or hold 
possession of the lands hereby granted until an act or bill of 
naturalization has been passed in their favor. 
Sent down for concurrence, 

Samtjel Adams, President. 
In the House of Representatives, July 6, 1787; Read and 
concurred. 

James Warren, Speaker. 
Approved, John Hancock. 
True Copy, 

Attest, John Avery, Junior, Secretary. 

^ The Enabling Act of the General Court and the oath are 
recorded in Hancock County Registry of Deeds, vol. iii, folios 
199, 200. 

2 Stephen Jones was born at Falmouth, now Portland, in 
1739. He served in the French wars and was engaged in the 
campaigns of Ticonderoga and Fort Edward. In 1766 he settled 



THE DE GREGOIRE GRANT 131 

Machias, to make partition. Messrs. Lithgow and 
Thwing declined to act, and July 4 the court 
appointed Nathan Jones of Gouldsboro' and 
Thomas Richardson of Mount Desert to fill the 
vacancies. 

After much delay the committee made their 
report : — 

We, Stephen Jones, Nathan Jones, and Thomas 
Richardson, in pursuance to the aforesaid war- 
rant, to us directed, have set off to De Gre- 
goire and wife the moiety of said Island, which 
is bounded as follows : Beginning above Mr. 
James Richardson's at a stake and stone at the 
head of the tide, at the northern extremity of 
Mount Desert Sound, and from thence running 
north 38 degrees west, to a stake and stone upon 
the edge of the bank of high water mark upon 
the northern side of said Island ; thence easterly 
alono^ the hic^h water mark to and around said 
island ; thence westerly by the shore to said Mount 
Desert Sound ; thence northerly by the shore up 
said Sound to the first mentioned bounds ; and 
that the whole of that part of said Island to the 
westward of said Sound, and of said northerly 

at Machias and for forty years was the most eminent citizen of 
•what became Washington County. In 1769 he was commissioned 
captain and became the military leader of the patriots. He was 
the first justice of the peace east of the Penobscot Kiver, and 
the first justice of the Court of Common Pleas in Washington 
County. He died in Boston in 1826. 



132 MOUNT DESERT 

line from the head of said Sound to the northerly 
shore to be the moiety or share of John Bernard, 
Esq. 

Stephen Jones, 
Nathan Jones, 
Thomas Richardson. 

The report was entered at February term of 
court in Boston, and finally accepted at a term 
of the court, June 14, 1794. By strange and 
dramatic fortune, therefore, the most picturesque 
and romantic island on the Atlantic coast was 
owned at the end of the eighteenth century, ex- 
cept for the clearings of the hardy settlers, half 
by the son of a Tory provincial governor and 
half by the granddaughter of a French adven- 
turer. 

Both owners were poor and were obliged to 
raise money by mortgaging their estates ^ and 
making such sales as were possible to settlers. 

^ The history of these mortgages is long and complicated. 

John Bernard mortgaged bis undivided half on July 6, 1786, 
to Thomas Russell of Boston, acting apparently for the London 
firm of Lane, Son & Fraser. There is no record in Lincoln or 
Hancock County of any assignment, foreclosure, or discharge of 
this mortgage. 

September 18, 1803, John L. Sullivan, administrator de bonis 
non of the estate of Thomas Russell of Boston, deceased, by 
virtue of a Resolve of the General Court, passed February 26, 
1803, sold for one dollar " one undivided moiety of the Island 
of Mount Desert, which was granted to Sir John Bernard, June 



THE DE GREGOIRE GRANT 133 

There are forty-four deeds on record from De 
Gregoire to settlers, for which he received, ac- 

14, 1785," to George W. Irving of Boston, but resident of Lon- 
don, England. 

March 26, 1822, George W. Irving sold to Ward Nicholas 
Boylston, " That part of the Island of Mount Desert, originally 
granted John Bernard, and by him conveyed to Thomas Russell, 
deceased, and by his administrator to me, excepting hereunto all 
lands heretofore conveyed by Thomas W. Winthrop, my attor- 
ney, the estate having been originally conveyed by mortgage to 
said Thomas Russell, to secure a debt in part due to the house 
of Lane, Son and Fraser, of London, who were in consequence, 
equitably entitled to receive the proceeds of said estate, and said 
estate was afterwards taken possession of under said mortgage 
and the equity of redemption foreclosed by long possession: the 
said Ward N. Boylston, as Administrator of the estate of his 
uncle, Thomas Boylston, deceased, is now equitably entitled to 
said estate as representative of the house of Lane, Son and 
Fraser, of which Boylston was declared a partner, and to whom 
all the estate was to go after the payments of the debts of said 
firm." 

On August 4, 1792, De Gregoire and wife conveyed to Henry 
Jackson for £1247 16s. "a tract of land on the main . . . and 
also our divided moiety of the Mount Desert Island, (except 
settlers' grants and lots contracted for prior to June 1, 1791; 
and our farm of 100 acres, as the same is now improved and 
possessed by us ; and another lot at the south west corner of 
Nicholas Thomas' lot, running south 54 degrees west, 64 rods, 
then north, 48 west to the shore, and up the creek to the first 
bounds and also one square acre at end of mill dam, and also the 
mill erected there; also town lot of 450 acres.) Bartlett's Is- 
land 1414 acres. Great Cranberry Island 490 acres, Little Cran- 
berry Island 73 acres, Sutton Island 174 acres. Baker's Island 
123 acres, Bear Island 9 acres, Thomas' Island 64 acres, Green Is- 
land west side of narrows, two small islands near Bartlett's, Great 
Duck Island 182 acres, excepting thereat 100 acres for Col. 
Jones as a settler, and Little Duck Island 59 acres." Four 
years later, July 9, 1796, Henry Jackson conveyed the lands re- 
maining unsold for £100 to William Bingham of Philadelphia, 



134 MOUNT DESERT 

cording to the terms of his grant, five " Spanish 
milled dollars " each. There were probably a few 

from whose heirs most of the present summer residents on the 
eastern half of the island derive their titles. 

William Bingham died in England in 1804, and by his will, 
probated in Philadelphia, September 19, 1805, and in Maine 
(Hancock County), February 27, 1810, devised his entire estate 
to certain trustees to hold two fifths in trust for his son, William 
Bingham the younger, until his majority, when the son should 
take free of the trust, and to hold three fifths in trust for his two 
daughters, Anne, wife of Alexander Baring of London, afterward 
Lord Ashburton, and Maria Matilda, wife of Henry Baring of 
London, an equal part to each, until the death of each daughter, 
when the children of each daughter should take that daughter's 
share, free of the trust. 

The son attained his majority, and both daughters died prior 
to January 1, 1850, so that all the trusts under the will termi- 
nated, and the estate was held, two fifths by the son and three 
fifths by the children of the two daughters. 

Anne B. Baring (at the time of her decease the Dowager 
Lady Ashburton) left surviving her seven children: William 
(second Lord Ashburton), Francis, Frederick, Anne (married 
Mildmay), Harriet (Marchioness of Bath), Louisa, and Lydia, 
and no other child. 

Francis, Frederick, Louise, Lydia, Harriet (of Bath), and 
Francis and Henry Mildmay (heirs of Anne B. Mildmay), con- 
veyed all their interest to William, Lord Ashburton, who thus 
acquired one half of the three fifths by deed dated December 
17, 1851. 

Maria Matilda, after the death of Henry Baring, married the 
Marquis du Blaisel, and at her death left surviving five children: 
Henry B., Frances (married to Henry B. Simpson), Ann Maria 
(married to William Gordon Coesvelt), James Drummond, and 
William Frederick Baring. Ann Maria Coesvelt afterward died, 
leaving one child only, Ann Maria, married to Antonio, Comte 
de Noailles. 

James Drummond Baring conveyed his interest to his brother, 
Henry B. Baring, by deed dated June 21, 1849. 

For the more convenient management of the property in the 



Know all Men hy ihcfc PrCjfcnfs^ Thai 



^^T^,r^c^ y/Uj^,^^. /f^ 



'Vs .■ 'C'-'Ji^^^i'r .1.. '.. Ill-', .ul.iiui'-ful:'.-, r.iKl for 
,^,, ,, ,■ DO, I"; -!•"■■' k Ives .„ui <7,/.t 1 



■' ".iijoj^*/ il" ''■ II i'. .ul.iiui'.ful:'.-, r.iKl for clivrrf otlior gOoi! Caiil^ , ni : ' 

DO, I"; -!•"■■' klves .„ui <7,/.t 1 kii:,, Rcmfc, li, .Icak^gfli- ir,>! (m, , . . . 



'■"■■■ 7"-- 






^ ^ n 


1 ^ ) ^ 


: > "^ > 




) ^ ^ ^ n ^ '' ' 


■ 'y ; 


"I > > -> ^ ^ ^ ■^ 


1"., .1 iiri ■, I- 1 ■ 


:'i-'.>, i 1.1. . In;cri: Tir, !'■(■,., t .■ U.niii, .J'l»( iinnd v.i..ilti a , t r, ol <^</ 


:i /A- 


■ , -X "^ -^ ^ 

r'l\ii.,u ,„• I'.rloi.s (-1,1,1, i;n'. fjoico- ' . ' ''-' ' 

, . li.il .,, v..,il, In ..:,■, Wav <.i- Mr.. . 11'^ 

*- 1.. __ . _; .. , . . . ; 



DEED FROM DE GREGOIRE 



THE DE GREGOIKE GRANT 135 

others who recorded their deeds later, while 
some have never been recorded. The De Gre- 
goires were evidently not suited to a pioneer life 
and did not prosper. Their house at Hull's Cove 
stood on the place now owned by Mr. C. H. Car- 
penter. They gradually saw their property slip 
away from them. In 1796 their property was 
valued for taxation at $1845. The next year 
they were assessed on property valued at $663, 
and in 1805, which was the last year in which the 
name appears on the assessors' books, the valua- 
tion was only $301. On February 7, 1806, the 
De Gregoires deeded the house at Hull's Cove 
and all the lands belonging to them to Royal 
Gurley, who moved into the house and supported 

United States, William (Lord Ashburton), owning one half of 
three fifths, Henry B. Baring, Francis Baring, Ann Maria (Count- 
ess de Noailles), and William Frederick Baring, owning the 
other half of the three fifths, conveyed the American property 
to Joseph Reed IngersoU, then United States Minister to Great 
Britain, and to John Craig Miller of Philadelphia, as trustees, 
with power of succession and appointment. Deed dated July 
18, 1853, and recorded Hancock County Registry of Deeds, 
vol. xcviii, folio 150. 

William Bingham, the younger, by his will probated in Phila- 
delphia, June 16, 1856, devised all his estate to his widow, Marie 
Charlotte Chartier de Lothbiniere Bingham. She conveyed the 
estate to her son, William B. de L. Bingham, by deed dated 
April 11, 1861. He conveyed, by deed dated August 12, 1862, his 
two fifths to Joseph Reed IngersoU and John Craig Miller, upon 
the same trusts, and with the same powers, as in the deed from 
the owners of the three fifths. Messrs. Reed and IngersoU thus 
became trustees for the entire estate, a trust which has de- 
scended through a number of trustees and agents to the pre- 
sent day. 



136 MOUNT DESERT 

the De Gregoires there until the death of M. de 
Gregoire on January 18, 1810. Then Mr. Gurley 
moved into Captain Samuel Hull's house but 
continued to care for Mme. De Gregoire until 
her death a year later. There appears to be no 
foundation whatever for the statement often 
made, " that the inhabitants of Hull's Cove would 
not permit the De Gregoires to be buried within 
the inclosed burying-ground because they were 
Catholics." The fact is that the day on which 
M. De Gregoire's grave was dug was bitterly 
cold and windy and the snow was deep, so the 
grave was dug in the lee of some spruce-trees a 
little outside the burying-ground. The De Gre- 
goires' children appear to have returned to France 
before the death of their parents, and are lost to 
sight. 



V 

MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 



Come, my tan-faced children, 
Follow well in order, get your weapons ready, 
Have you your pistols ? have you your sharp-edged axes ? 

Pioneers ! O pioneers ! 

Have the elder races halted ? 
Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there beyond 

the seas ? 
We take up the task eternal, and the burden and the lesson. 
Pioneers ! O pioneers ! 

All the past we leave behind, 
We debouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world. 
Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the 
march. 

Pioneers ! O pioneers ! 

We detachments steady throwing, 
Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep. 
Conquering, holding, daring, venturing as we go the unknown 
ways. 

Pioneers ! O pioneers ! 

Walt Whitman. 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION. 1776 

The first settlers of Mount Desert were a plain 
and frugal folk following humble callings and 
pulling in homespun harness. The home life was 
bleak and bare, the children got along without 
toys and story-books, and all went to work very 
young. It was, however, an out-of-door life, in 
the fresh air, close to nature, telling time by the 
sun, acquainted with animals in the barn or the 
woods or the air and sea. There was very little 
of grace and refinement, but the life was a good 
school of character. The boys learned to use their 
faculties, to bear burdens, to take responsibili- 
ties on young shoulders. It was a life free from 
the artificiality and the sharp competition of the 
city. The struggle for livelihood was a struggle 
with nature and not with one's fellowmen. 

The first comers built their cabins along the 
shores where a stream furnished water and power, 
or where a bit of grass or marshland gave a 
chance to get fodder for the stock. Others set- 

NoTE. — For the genealogical tables in this chapter and for 
much valuable information, Dr. Street was indebted by Mr. Eben 
M. Hamor of Town Hill. Interesting facts were also derived 
from the reminiscences of the late Rev. Oliver Fernald and from 
a manuscript kindly furnished by the Rev. Edwin H. Hadlock of 
San Francisco. 



140 MOUNT DESERT 

tied on the outlying islands, which were as a rule 
less densely forested, where abundant driftwood 
provided fuel with little labor, and where fishing 
industries could be readily undertaken. None of 
the people had any legal title to their little clear- 
ings until the majority acquired deeds from the 
De Gregoire or Bernard estates. The reports of 
the surveyors who laid off these lots contain our 
most authentic information about the location of 
the families that settled on the island before 
1800. At first the Bernard or western side at- 
tracted the majority of the settlers. It was first 
approached by those coming from the settlements 
to the westward and it lay nearest the open sea 
and the track of passing vessels. Later, owing 
perhaps to the comparative ease of getting a title 
on the De Gregoire side, the trend of popula- 
tion was to the northeastern shores fronting on 
Frenchman's Bay. For the most part the habita- 
tions built were of a very temporary character, 
and the people moved on if they found a better 
location in some sheltered cove or by another bit 
of marshland. 

The names of the earliest settlers appear upon 
a quaint petition sent to Governor Bernard in 
1768 and preserved in the Bernard papers. It 
seems that people living on the neighboring 
mainland made a practice of coming on to the is- 
land and cutting timber and hay and carrying it 
off for their own use ; and in some years they 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 141 

brought their cattle over for pasturage, regardless 
of the protests of the settlers. The Mount Desert 
people therefore appealed to Governor Bernard. 
The petition ^ is as follows : — 

To his Exelency Governor Bernard. 

We the inhabitants of mount desart Humbly 
Craves Your Exelency s Protection against the 
InCrosins of the Naboring inhabents made upon 
us Consarning hay for we cannot git hay on 
ye island to Keep our Stoks as the People Cut 
the hay before it gits its Groth So that they Spoil 
the marsh & if we Cut hay and Stack it for 
Sleding it is Stole so that we cannot have ye 
Provilige of the marsh that we have Cleared 
Rodes too, therefor we bege that your Exelency 
will Consider us and Put a stop to this InCros- 
sins, other ways we Shall Not be Abel to Keepe 
our Stocks and the marsh be totterly Spiled 
Last Summer the People came from the Town- 
shep of No. Six and Cut Part of the North East 
marsh where we have had a Rode this five yeare 
before we knew thereof & carred off some hay 
after we Raked & Staked it, also other hay which 
we Cut and Staked was Stole. The pretence is 
they have as good a right to it as the settlers. 
Last hay Season it happened very Lid^y for us 
that Col. Goldthwait Came here just about the 

1 Sparks Collection, vol. xi, p. 271. Also iu Bangor Hist. Mag. 
ii, 218. 



142 MOUNT DESERT 

time of cutting the marsh & we are of opin- 
ion that if he had Not Come hear most of the 
Settlers on this island must have Lost or Kild 
their Stoks for want of hay. The Settlers of No. 
four & No five & No Six west of mount dessert 
River & No 5 and No 2 east of mount desart 
River Chefly Depend on this island for hay ; we 
would further inform your Excelency that vessel 
hands & others make a Practis of Coming to this 
island and Cutting Lumber Such as Staves 
Shingles and Clapboards and other Lumber which 
will much Discoureg future Settlers so no more 
but we make bold to subscribe ourSelves your 
Exclencys most humble Petitioners. 

Abraham Somes, 
Andrew Tarr, 
Stephen Gott, 
Benjm. Standwood, 
James Richardson, 
Stephen Richardson, 
Daniel Gott,_ 
DanIel Gott, Jr., 
Thomas Richardson, 
Elijah Richardson. 

Of these signers Abraham Somes,^ the pioneer 

1 Abraham Somes was born at Gloucester, Mass., March 17, 
1732; m. (1) Hannah, dau. of Samuel Herrick of Gloucester, Dec. 
25, 1753. She was born at Gloucester, Oct. 6, 1735. She d. March 
16, 1790. On April 2, 1794, he m. (2) Mrs. Joanna Beal, widow 
of Edward Beal of Union River. She d. Dec. 17, 1831. Abraham 
Somes d. Sept. 7, 1819. 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 143 

on the island, was the son of Abraham and 
Martha Emerson Somes who were married at 

Children by first marriage : 
I. Hannah, b. Sept. 16, 1754; m. Samuel Reed of Sedgwick; 

res. Somesville. 
II. Patty, b. Dec. 24, 1756; m. James Fly; res. Surry, 

Brooklin, and Trenton, where he d. Dec. 1801. She d. 

April, 1846. 

III. Lucy, b. May 4, 1759; m. Nicholas Thomas; res. Thomas 
District, Eden. 

IV. Prudence, b. June 23, 1761; m. Abraham Reed; res. 
Sedgwick. 

V. Abraham, b. 1763; m. Rachel Babson; res. on his fa- 
ther's place in Somesville. His sons Isaac and George B. 
settled in Somesville. 

VI. Marcey, b. 1765; m. Amaziah Dodge; moved to Ohio; 
d. July 12, 1845. 

VII. John, b. 1767; m. Judith Richardson; res. Somesville. 
VIII. Daniel, b. 1770; m. Clarissa Beal; res. Somesville. Two 
of their children settled at Somesville. 

IX. Louis, b. 1772; m. Dodge of Sedgwick. 

X. James, b. 1774 ; m. Betsy Gott ; res. Beach Hill and 

Solon, Me. 
XI. Jacob, b. 1777; unmarried; lost at sea. 
XII. Betty, b. 1779; m. William W. Thorn; res. Oak Hill. 
XIII. Isaac, b. 1781; m. Sally Kittridge of Billerica. 

VII. John Somes, son of Abraham and Hannah, m., Jan. 
6, 1793, to Judith Richardson, by the Hon. Paul Dudley Sargent, 
Esq. He settled at Somesville on land now owned by his grand- 
son, John J. Somes. He was representative in the Massachusetts 
legislature 1815-1818. 

Children : 

1. John, Jr., b. 1794 ; m. Julia Kittridge; res. Somesville. 
He was the first postmaster on the island of Mount Desert. 

2. Judith, b. 1796; m. Eben Babson; res. Somesville. 

3. Jacob, b. 1799; m. Rebecca Seavy; res. in Somesville on his 
father's place. Representative and senator to the Maine 
legislature. 



144 MOUNT DESERT 

Gloucester in 1730, and was fourth in descent 
from Morris Somes (b. 1614), who, with his wife 
Margerie, was one of the first settlers of Glouces- 
ter and ancestor of all the New England fami- 
lies that bear the name. Abraham Somes married 
Hannah Herrick, daughter of Samuel Herrick of 
Gloucester. He settled on what is now known as 
the George Somes Point in 1762 and held there- 
after a foremost place on the island. He was one 
of the first Board of Selectmen of the town of 
Mount Desert, lieutenant of the militia company, 
and lived to be over eighty years of age. His 
numerous descendants have always been the 
leading family at Somesville and to the fourth 
generation retain their influence in town aifairs. 
James Richardson,^ who came in the same year, 

4. Abraham, b. 1801; m. Adline Freeman; res. Somesville. 

5. Benjamin, b. 1804; d. unmarried. 

6. Emily, b. 1806; m. John M. Noyes; res. Somesville and 
Massachusetts. 

7. Julian, b. 1810; d. May 20, 1812. 

^ James Richardson, son of Stephen and Jane (Montgomery) 
Richardson, who came from Londonderry, Ireland, to Gloucester, 
Mass., in 1738. James was b. about 1730. He was m., March 
19, 1752, to Rachel Gott, by Rev. Benjamin Bradstreet. He d. 
Dec. 12, 1807. She d. March 22, 1814. 
Their children were: 

I. Rachel, b. 1752 ; m. Davis Wasgatt; res. Beech Hill. 
II. James, b. 1754; m. (1) Hannah Sargent, (2) Mrs. 
Hannah Gilpatrick of Trenton; res. Northeast Harbor. 

III. Daniel, b. 1756; m. Sarah Cousins; res. Hadley's Point. 

IV. Jane, b. 1758; ra. Nicholas Thomas (second wife); res. 
Thomas District, Eden. 

V. Mary, b. 1761; m. Ezra H. Dodge. 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 145 

was also from Gloucester. He was of sturdy 
Scotch Irish descent. He built a mill at the head 
of the sound and engaged in lumbering in winter 
and farming in summer. He was a man of some 
education and was the first clerk of the planta- 
tion and also town clerk for many years. The 
prolific and sejviceable family stock continues 
to flourish in many branches. 

Andrew Tarr also came from Gloucester. He 
seems to have settled first near his old neighbors 
at the head of the sound, but soon moved to the 
smooth slopes of Fernald's Point where the 
Jesuits had set up their cross just one hundred 
and fifty years before. In the list of the early 
settlers on the Bernard grant his lot is designated 
as northerly of Norwood's Cove. Later Tobias 
Fernald, a seafaring young man from Kittery, 
married Andrew Tarr's daughter Comfort, and 
they inherited the estate and built a good house 
on the point. Their son Ebenezer married So- 
phronia Wasgatt and lived and died on his beau- 

VI. George, b. Aug. 16, 1763, the first white child boru on 
Mount Desert; m. (1) Lucy Pindexter, (2) Mrs. Betsy 
Simmons; res. at the head of the sound on land now 
owned by his great-grandson, Bloomfield Richardson. 
VII. David, b. 1765; m. Molly Steel; res. Somesville. He 
was justice of the pea^e. 
VIII. Judith, b. 1767; m. John Somes; res. Somesville. 
IX. Isaac, b. 1770; d. in Boston, Aug. 12, 1796. 
X. Tamson, b. 1772; m. George Freeman; res. Pretty 
Marsh. 
XI. Rhoda, b. 1774; m. Reuben Freeman; res. Pretty Marsh. 



146 MOUNT DESERT 

tif 111 place, leaving it to his two sons, Rev. Oliver 
H. Fernald and Professor Charles H. Fernald of 
the Massachusetts Agricultural Colleofe. 

Stephen Eichardson was a brother of James 
Richardson. He settled on what is now Crock- 
ett's Point on the west side of Bass Harbor. It 
was at his house that the first meeting of the 
plantation was held March 30, 1776, and at that 
meeting he was elected a member of the Commit- 
tee of Correspondence, Safety, and Inspection. 
The subsequent meetings of the plantation were 
likewise held at Stephen Richardson's. " The 
house," wrote Mr. Dodge in 1871, "went out of 
existence some time ago, but the debris of the 
cellar still remains." Stephen Richardson was the 
representative of the plantation in the General 
Court and a member of the first Board of Select- 
men of Mount Desert. 

Daniel Gott was a brother of Mrs. Stephen 
Richardson and settled near his sister on the west 
side of Bass Harbor. On March 25, 1789, " in 
consideration of eighteen pounds legal money," 
he obtained a deed from the counties of York, 
Cumberland, and Lincoln to the two islands lying 
off Bass Harbor Head. He moved on to the larger 
island, thereafter known as Gott's Island, and 
occujiied it until his death, June 7, 1814. His 
descendants still live there. Thomas Richardson 
settled on the east side of Bass Harbor. He was 
a member of the first Committee of Correspond- 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 147 

ence of the plantation, and we have already met 
his name as a member of the committee to run 
the boundary between the Bernard and De Gre- 
goire grants. Benjamin Stanwood was probably 
at the time living on Great Cranberry, though he 
afterwards appears as a settler near Bar Harbor. 
The petition of the settlers was evidently re- 
ferred by Governor Bernard, then in the thick of 
his troubles with the Massachusetts patriots, to 
his friend and business associate. Colonel Thomas 
Goldthwait, commander of the post. Fort Pownall, 
at the mouth of the Penobscot. He evidently 
turned it over to Colonel Nathan Jones of Goulds- 
boro', for the following letter ^ is preserved in the 
Bernard papers in the Harvard College library : 

Frenchmen's Bay, 16 May 1718. 

May it please your Excellency 

I Received the favor that came by Col. Gold- 
thwait and shall act in Consequence thereof. I 
have sent to many of the People that used to Cut 
the Grass on Mt. Desert and they have been with 
me. I let them know that for the future they 
must not cut any more without first agreeing and 
paying a valuable consideration for it. All the 
People that I have talked with are willing to pay 
sum Acknowledgement for it. The method I have 
taken was to offer it to the Persons that used to 
improve it and that gives the Greatest Satisfac- 
tion. 

1 Sparks MSS. vol. xi, p. 275. 



148 MOUNT DESERT 

As to the price I should be glad to know what 
your Excellency would accept of, One Shilling 
Sterling p Ton would come to a Great Sum if all 
the Hay was paid for, that is cut and that price 
might easily be obtained I think. Col. Gold- 
thwait wrote me that he should be at Mount 
Desert and at this place before this Time. I have 
waited for his arrival to advise with him on all 
the affairs Relative to the Island or I shoidd have 
gone to Mount Desert before this time to have 
Lotted out the Meadows to the Several Persons 
that want them and to have taken security of them 
for the Sums that they agree to give. I am in- 
formed that Mr. Somes Cultivates that Bad Spiritt 
that prevails too much everywhere at this Time 
he tells the People that they have the best Right 
to the hay on the Island and that the Government 
is not likely to get a Grant of the Island. There 
has been great Havock made of your Timber, but 
I shall prevent it for the future on this side of the 
Island as to building the Mill that was purposed. 
When Col. Goldthwait comes down if he will at- 
tend I will go to the Island and view the place 
once more and give a full answer. 

I am Sir with due Respect 

Your Excellency's Most Obedient and Very 
Humble Servant, 

Nathan Jones.^ 

1 Nathan Jones was born at Weston, Mass., September 9, 
1724, the son of Elisha and Mary Allen Jones. On October 17, 



MOUNT DESEKT PLANTATION 149 

In the next fifteen years the nine households 
represented by the signers of the petition to Gov- 
ernor Bernard were joined by others, and little 
communities grew up at the head of the sound, 
at Southwest and Bass Harbors, and at Seal Cove. 
Youne: Davis Wasg^att married James Richard- 
son's daughter, Rachel,^ and later, with hardy 
labor, cleared a farm on Beech Hill. Wasgatt 
was later a justice of the peace, a man of vigor- 

1756, he married Sarah Severns. He accompanied Governor 
Bernard to Mount Desert as a surveyor in October, 1762, and not 
long after that settled on the eastern shore of Frenchman's Bay 
near West Gouldsboro', where he reared a family of twelve chil- 
dren. In the Revolution he was suspected of Toryism and was 
under the surveillance of his neighbors for some time. He was 
early appointed a justice of the peace, and appears in 1790 as one 
of the commissioners to divide the island of Mount Desert and 
in the succeeding year as administrator of the estate of James 
Cockle of Mount Desert. He is often mentioned in the diary of 
General David Cobb who lived on Gouldsboro' Point for thirty 
years as the agent of the Bingham estate. He died in 1806. 
1 The twelve children of this marriage were : 
I. Davis, b. 1775, at No. 1; m. Sally Hadlock, res. Northeast 

Harbor. 
II. Rachel, b. 1776, at No. 1; m. Simeon Milliken, res. on 

Hardwood Island, then in Trenton. 

III. Cornelius, b. at Brimfield, Mass., 1778. 

IV. Tamson, b. 1780, at Monson, Mass. 

V. Rufus, b. 1781, at Monson, Mass.; d. 1783. 
VI. Sarah H., b. 1784, at Monson, Mass. 
VII. Rufus, b. 1786, at Trenton; m. Suky Gott. 
VIII. Hannah R., b. 1788, at Trenton. 

IX. David, b. 1790, at Mount Desert; res. Beech Hill. 

X. Asa, b. 1793, at Mount Desert; m. . 

XI. Margaret T., b. 1796, at Mount Desert; m. . 

XII. Jason, b. 1798, at Mount Desert; m. Abigail Rodickj 
res. Cromwell's Harbor. 



150 MOUNT DESERT 

ous mind and independent judgment. His twelve 
children are represented by many descendants in 
Hancock County. 

Ezra H. Dodge married another of James Rich- 
ardson's daughters and established his homestead 
on the southern side of Seal Cove, still known as 
Dodge's Point. By the year 1784 William Gil- 
ley, Tyler Reed, and George Norman had settled 
near Norwood's Cove. Ebenezer Eaton, the first 
minister, Andrew Tucker, Samuel Bowden, Ben- 
jamin Ward, Joshua Mayo, William Grew, Nich- 
olas Tucker, John Rute, Joseph Legro, and Peter 
Dolliver are recorded as living at Southwest 
Harbor. Joshua Norwood, Abraham Richard- 
son, and Peter Gott were on the east side of 
Bass Harbor. Benjamin Benson had joined 
Stephen Richardson and Daniel Gott on the 
west side of Bass Harbor. William Nutter and 
Enoch Wentworth were near Goose Cove. Wil- 
Ham Heath had a mill on the water power at 
Seal Cove, and James Reed and George But- 
ler were with him. Ephraim Pray and Reuben 
and George Freeman and their families were at 
Pretty Marsh. With one or two exceptions all 
these families are still well represented in the 
population of the island. 

The first settler on the eastern half of the 
island was probably John Hamor,^ who came 

^ John Hamor was the son of John Hamor and bis wife Sarah 





MILL AT SEAL COVE 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 151 

from Arundel, now Kennebunkport, in 1768. 
He brought his wife, Mary Rodick, and settled 

(HufE) Hamor, who lived at, or near, Cleaves Cove, in the town 
of Arundel, now Kennebuukport, as early as 1747. Their chil- 
dren were Joanna, Sarah, Molly, Bathsheba, Betty, John, and 
two other sons, probably all born in Arundel. John married 
Mary Rodick and settled in Arundel. In 1768 they removed to 
Hull's Cove. 

Their children, perhaps not in the right order, were : 
I. David Hamor, b. 1757; m. Experience Thompson; res. 

Hull's Cove. 
II. Mary, b. 1761; m. Edward Hodgkins; res. Trenton, now 
Lamoine. 

III. Sally, b. ; m. Ezra Leland; res. Leland's Cove, 

Eden. 

IV. John, b. ; m. Sarah Hodgkins; res. near Hull's 

Cove, Eden. 

V. Daniel, b. ; m. Polly Hodgkins; res. Hamor's Sand 

Point, Eden. 

I. David Hamor, son of John and Mary (Rodick) Hamor, 
b. at Arundel, March 11, 1757 ; came to Hull's Cove with his 
parents in 1768; m. Experience Thompson, dan. of William and 
Mary Thompson, May 12, 1790. She was b. at Harpswell, April 
18, 1771. They settled at Hull's Cove, where he d. Oct. 25, 1836, 
and she d. Oct. 26, 1856. He was a farmer, well off for the 
times. He was at one time lieutenant of militia, and held im- 
portant offices in the plantation and town of Mount Desert, and 
was treasurer and selectman of Eden for a number of years. 
Mrs. Hamor was a prominent and active member of the Eden 
Baptist Church. 

Their children were: 

1. William, b. 1791; m. Experience Mayo; res. at Town 

Hill. 

2. Betsy, b. 1792; m. Joseph Higgins; res. at Town Hill, 

3. James, b. 1794; m. Clarissa Rodick; res. Bar Harbor. 

4. Jonathan, b. 1796; ra. Hannah Brewer; res. Hull's Cove. 

5. Ezra, b. 1798; m. Eliza Higgins; res. Hull's Cove. 

6. Mary, b. 1800; m. Edward Brewer; res. Hull's Cove. 



152 MOUNT DESERT 

at Hull's Cove, which soon became and remained 
for many years the chief centre of settlement on 
the eastern shore. It combined the three advan- 
tages which the earliest settlers sought, a harbor, 
giving shelter for small vessels, a fresh water 
stream, and a bit of grass or marsh land where 
the stock could be pastured and hay cut. Hamor 
built his cabin where the M. L. Hamor house 
now stands. The next summer he started in his 
little vessel for his old home at Kennebunkport, 
and was never heard of again. His widow brought 
up the five children, and lived until May 31, 
1814, when she was killed by an accident. The 
Hamors have, from the first, been one of the 
most respected and useful families on the island. 
For four generations they have been influential 
leaders in town affairs. 

The family character of the migration we are 
tracing is emphasized by the next settlers on the 
northeastern shore, who were both brothers-in-law 

7. Edward, b. 1803; m. Elmeua Thomas; res. Hull's Cove. 

8. Hannah D., b. 1804; m. Eben L. Higghis; res. Leland's 

Cove. 

9. Cornelius T., b. 1806; m. Sally D. Hopkins; res. Hull's 

Cove. 

10. Prudence T., b. 1808; m. Eben S. Young; res. Salsbury's 

Cove. 

11. Peleg, b. 1810; d. unmarried in 1839. 

12. Richard, b. 1812; m. Mary Ann Hamor; res. Hull's Cove. 

13. Alden, b. 1815; m. Triphena Higgins; res. Hull's Cove ; 

now living. 
Five of these sons were sea-captains, and three of the daugh- 
ters married sea-captains. 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 153 

of John Hamor. Daniel Rodick^ had married 
Betty Hamor at Harpswell in 1764: and five years 
later they came to Frenchman's Bay and were 
the ancestors of the strong and influential Rodick 

1 Daniel Rodick m. Betty Hamor, dau. of John and Sarah 
(Hu£P) Hamor, and sister of John Hamor the first settler at 
Hull's Cove. They were published at Harpswell, Jan. 28, 1764. 

Their children were: 
I. Daniel, d. at sea; unmarried. 

II. James, m. ; res. Harpswell. 

III. David, m. Sally Stanwood. 

IV. John, m. Thankful Higgins; res. Bar Harbor. 
V. Abigail, m. Thomas Douglass. 

VI. Betsey, m. Springer. 

VII. Polly, m. Dean Higgins; res. Cromwell's Harbor. 
VIII. Dorcas, m. John Suminsbuy; res. Hull's Cove. 

IX. Hannah, m. Andrew Monarch; res. Hull's Cove. 

X. Sally, m. Oliver Thomas; res. Hull's Cove. 

XI. Patience, m. Josiah Smalledge. 

III. David Rodick m. Sally Stanwood, dau. of Job and Martha 
(Bradstreet) Stanwood, June 2, 1797; res. on Bar Island, Eden. 
She d. Feb. 18, 1853, and he d. Jan. 21, 1856. 

Their children were: 

1. Daniel, b. 1798; m. Deborah Stanwood; res. Cromwell's 

Harbor. 

2. Abigail, b. 1800; m. Jason Wasgatt ; res. Cromwell's Harbor. 

3. Clarissa, b. 1802 ; m. James Hamor; res. Bar Harbor. 

4. Benjamin, b. 1805; res. New York. 

5. Emily, b. 1807; m. (1) Serenus Higgins; res. Bar Harbor; 

m. (2) Thomas DoUard; res. West Ellsworth. 

6. Pamelia, b. 1810; m. Josiah B. Richards; res. Cromwell's 

Harbor. 

7. Betsy, b. 1812; m. Jonathan Manchester of Mount Desert. 

She is now living at Bar Harbor. 

8. David, b. 1815, m. (1) Mariam Higgins, (2) Betsy Brewerj 

res. on Bar Island, Eden. 

9. Martha, b. 1819; m. Rev. James Small of Exeter, Me. 



154 MOUNT DESERT 

family at Bar Harbor. They settled Dear the 
shore on the lot part of which is now owned and 
occupied by his grandson, John A. Rodick. At a 
plantation meeting, March 25, 1777, he was chosen 
a member of the Committee of Correspondence, 
Inspection, and Safety "for ye present year." 
June 10 of the same year he was chosen on a 
committee " to take care of the marshes." Elisha 
Cousins ^ had married Bathsheba Hamor at Harps- 
well in 1758, and they came to Hull's Cove in 
1769 and built a homestead on what is now the 
Walter M. Hamor place. Mr. Cousins took an 
active part in public affairs, held important offices 

^ Elisha Cousins, b. at Wells, District of Maine, Nov. 20, 
1735; d. at Hull's Cove, Eden, Jan. 18, 1816. He m. Bathsheba, 
dau. of John and Sarah (HufE) Hamor, Dec. 3, 1758. She was 
b. at Sheepscot, May 11, 1742, and d. March 23, 1830, at 
Hull's Cove. They moved from Harpswell to Hull's Cove about 
1769. 

Their children were: 

I. A daughter, b. 1759; d. in infancy. 
II. Ruth, b. 1761; m. Joseph Bunker; res. on Cranberry Isle. 

III. John, b. 1764; m. (1) Hannah Dyer, (2) Mary Higgins, 
(3) Eliza Manchester; res. Hull's Cove and Trenton. 

IV. Ephraim, b. 1766; d. in infancy. 

V. Bathsheba, b. 1768; m. Robert Young; res. Duck Brook. 
VI. Sarah, b. 1770 ; m. Daniel Richardson ; res. Hadley's 
Sand Point. 
VII. Elisha, b. 1773; m. Thankful Wasgatt ; res. at the Nar- 
rows. 
VIII. Ephraim, b. 1775; m. Louis Salsbury ; res. Bar Harbor. 
IX. A son, b. 1778; d. in infancy. 

X. Joseph, b, 1779 ; m. Mary Cousins ; res. Northwest 
Cove. 
XI. Joanna, b. 1783; m. Moses Wasgatt; res. Hull's Cove. 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 155 

in plantation and town, and was moderator, clerk, 
and selectman of Eden many times. 

Next came several families from Cape Cod. 
Levi Higgins ^ and his wife, Batlisheba Young-, 
with two boys, Nehemiah and Elkanah, moved 
from Eastham in 1770 and built a log house on 
the point north of Hull's Cove now known as 
Cape Levi. Later he built the frame house in 
which the First Baptist Church was organized. 
He was the first chairman of the Selectmen of 
the town of Mount Desert, a member of the first 

^ Levi Higgins m. (1) Bathsheba Young at Eastham, Cape 
Cod, Feb. 19, 1767. He m. (2) Mrs. Mary Hopkins, widow of 
Joseph Hopkins. He d. June 22, 1825. The Eden Baptist 
Church was organized at his house, July 5, 1799. 
Children by his first marriage were: 
I. Nehemiah, b. 1767, at Eastham; m. Ursula Leland, res. 
Leiand's Cove. 

II. Elkanah, b. 1769, at Eastham; m. Azubah ; res. 

Fairfield, Me, 

III. Eunice, b. 1771, at Hull's Cove. 

IV. Chloe, b. 1774, at Hull's Cove. 
V. Mercy, b. 1775, at Hull's Cove. 

VI. Hannah, b. 1777, at Hull's Cove; m. (1) Amariah Leland; 
res. Emery's Cove; (2) Humphrey Stanwood; res. Bar 
Harbor. 
VII. Theophilus, b. 1779, at Hull's Cove; res. Trenton now 
Lamoine. 
VIIL Richard, b. 1782, at Hull's Cove; m. (1) Rebecca Higgins, 
(2) Margaret Campbell; res. Hull's Cove. 
IX. Josiah, b. 1784, at Hull's Cove; m. Mary Cousins; res. 

Trenton. 
X. Deborah, b. 1786, at Hull's Cove. 
XL Mary, b. 1788, at Hull's Cove. 

XII. Levi, b. 1793, at Hull's Cove; m. Jerusha Cousins; res. 
Trenton, 



156 MOUNT DESERT 

Board of Selectmen of the town of Eden, and 
lieutenant in the militia company. The next 
year after Levi Higgins, Israel Higgins ^ and his 
wife Mary Snow, came from Cape Cod and set- 
tled on the shore near Eddy's Brook. They 
" took up " some two hundred acres of land ever 
since known as the Israel Higgins lot. There 
Solomon Higgins, probably his brother-in-law, 
for his wife's name was Bethiah Snow, soon 
joined him. 

Levi Higgins's wife was Bathsheba Young and 
as they all came from the same town on Cape 
Cod, it is reasonable to suppose that Ezra Young ^ 

^ Israel Higgins and his wife Mary Snow came from South 
Truro, Cape Cod, before 1776. 
Their children were: 
I. Henry, b. 1769; at Eastham; d. 1794. 
II. Stephen, b. 1771; m. Deborah ; res. Bar Harbor. 

III. Israel, b. 1773; d. 1776. 

IV. Oliver, b. 1776; m. Rhoda Leland; res. Bar Harbor. 
V. Jonathan, b. 1780; d. 1796. 

VI. Zacheus, b. 1782; m. Sarah Leland; res. Bar Harbor. 
VII. Seth, b. 1785; m. Sally Hadock of Cranberry Isles. 
VIII. Mercy, b. 1787; m. Nathan Clark of Southwest Harbor. 

IX. Mary, b. 1791; m. Christopher Havens; res. Bar Harbor. 
X. Israel, b. 1798; m. Polly Hull; res. Bar Harbor. 

* There is no record of Captain Young's family in the Eden 
records, but in the records of Mount Desert is the following: — 

" A Record of Births and Deaths of Capt. Ezra Young and 
his wife Constant, and family." 

" their son Ezra Young was born at Mount Desert June the 
2o.b 1774." 

" their first Daughter Rosanna Born November ye 28, 1782." 
Dec. 9, 1804, Rosanna Young was married by her father, Ezra 
Young, Esq., to Isaac Mayo of Southwest Harbor. 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 157 

and Elkanah Young- ^ were her relations. Ezra 
Young: settled at Duck Brook before 1774. He 
was the most prominent and influential man on 
the island from the time he came until after 
Eden was incorporated. At the first plantation 
meeting held at Somesville, March 30, 1776, he 
was chosen on the Committee of Correspondence, 
Safety, and Inspection, and also on a committee 
" to bring in the order of the day." On June 
10, 1776, he was elected " Captain of the Militia 

Capt. Ezra Young d. June 12, 1812. His wife Constant d. 
April 8, 1816. 

Ezra Young, Jr., m. Sara Hoges. They had four children. 
Res. at Bar Harbor, then moved South. 

1 Elkanah Young and his (1) wife Rebeckah were m. at 
Eastham by the Rev. Joseph Crocker, March 16, 1769. She d. 
April 6, 1774, and he was m. (2) by Rev. Jonathan Bascom, 
at Eastham, Oct. 5, 1775, to Mary Lewis. They lived some 
years on the hill east of Salsbury's Cove, and then removed to 
Trenton. 

Child by first marriage: 
I. Mary, b. May 17, 1772, at Salsbury's Cove; m. William 
Mason; res. Eden. He was killed by the English at Bar 
Harbor in the war of 1812-15. 
Children by second marriage: 
II. Elkanah, b. Eastham. 

III. Barnabus, b. 1777, at Salsbury's Cove; m. Abigail Sals- 
bury; res. Ironbound Island. 

IV. Abner, b. 1779; m. (1) , (2) Lucy Hamor, (3) Mrs. 

Mary ; res. Salsbury's Cove. 

V. Nathan, b. 1781. 
VI. Thomas, b. 1783. 
VII. Solomon, b. 1785; res. Trenton, now Lamoine. 
VIII. Seth, b. 1788; res. Lamoine. 
IX. Lewis, b. 1793; res. Lamoine. 
X. William, b. 1794; res. Lamoine. 



158 MOUNT DESERT 

of this District." At a plantation meeting, March 
24, 1779, he was elected major. 

At the organization of the town of Mount De- 
sert he signed the oath of allegiance, was chosen 
moderator of the meeting and one of the first 
Board of Selectmen of Mount Desert. He held 
many responsible offices in Mount Desert, until 
Eden was incorporated, and at the first town 
meeting of Eden, held at the dwellinghouse of 
Captain Samuel Hull at Hull's Cove, April 4, 
1796, he was chosen chairman of the first Board 
of Selectmen of Eden. 

Ebenezer Salsbury^ and his wife, Mehitable, 
were probably the first settlers on the point now 
occuj^ied by the town of Bar Harbor. They 
came before 1776 and built a log house about 
where the Newport Hotel now stands. Soon they 
moved to the slope of the hill north of Eddy's 
Brook and later established a permanent home 
at the head of Salsbury's Cove, where both died 

1 The children of Ebenezer and Mehitable Salsbury were: 

I. Molly, m. James Leland; moved " down east." 
II. Stephen, m. Anna Snow Young; moved to Canaan. Me. 

III. Ebenezer, m. Abigail Knowles; res. Salsbury's Cove. 

IV. Abigail, m. Barnabus Young; res. Ironbound Island. 
V. Betsy, m. George Anderson. 

VI. Thankful, m. Eben Leland; res. Leland's Cove, Eden. 
VII. Reuben, m. Sarah Anderson. 

VIII. Nathan, m. Affiah Higgins; res. back of Salsbury's 
Cove. 
IX. Ephraim, m. Fanny Knowles; res. Hull's Cove. 

X. Penelope, m. Sparrow Higgins; res. Indian Point, Eden. 
XI. Louis, m. Ephraim Cousins; res. Trenton. 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 159 

in 1825, the wife on February 25 and the hus- 
band on November 22. " Old Uncle Ebenezer's " 
name occurs often in the town records and his 
house was used for the town meetings for a 
number of years. He prospered materially, and 
in 1796 we find him taxed for three horses, two 
oxen, twelve cows, and young cattle. 

Josiah Black was an early comer to Hull's Cove 
and a much respected man. He lived first in a 
small house near where Mrs. A. T. Hamor's brick 
house now stands and afterwards moved to the 
north side of the cove. He was the moderator 
of the first meeting of the plantation. His daugh- 
ter, Olive Black, married Simeon Hadley ^ and 

^ Simeon Hadley came from Hempstead, N. H., to Hull's 
Cove prior to 1771; m. Olive Black, dau. of Josiah Black, and 
lived there a few years, then removed to Hadley's Sand Point, 
where he d. 1825 and where his wife d. 1819. 
Their children were : 
I. Esther, b. 1771; m. Gideon Mayo; res. Clark's Cove. 
II. Samuel, b. 1772; m, Lydia Higgins; res. Hadley's Sand 
Point. 
III. Sarah, twin, b. 1774; m. Eleazer Higgins; res. Northeast 

Creek. 
IV. Olive, twin, b. 1774; m. David Higgins, 2d; res. North- 
west Creek. 
V. Simeon, b. 1776; m. Mercy Knowles; res. Town Hill. 

VI. Lucy, b. 1778; m. Burke. 

VII. Joseph, b. 1783; d. 1825, unmarried. 
VIII. Hepzibeth, b. 1787; m, William Richards; res. Hadley's 
Point. 
IX. Ruth, b. 1789. 

II. Samuel Hadley, son of Simeon and Olive (Black) Hadley, 
m. Lydia Higgins; res. Hadley's Sand Point. 



160 MOUNT DESERT 

settled near the brook on the south side of Mr. 
0. A. Carpenter's place in 1770. Afterwards they 
moved to Hadley's Point. 

Another family early settled on the northeast- 
ern shore was that of John Thomas ^ who came 

Their children were : 

I. Abel, b. 1795; m. (1) Esther Kettle, (2) Hannah Young; 

res. Hadley's Sand Point. 

2. Richard, b. 1797; m. Sally Stanwood; res. Town Hill. 

3. JosiahB., b. 1799; m. Zena Wasgatt; res. Northeast Creek. 

4. Olive, b. 1801; m. Thomas Paine; res. Emery District. 

5. David, b. 1802; m. Nancy Atherton. 

6. Lydia, b. 1804; m. Reuben S. Salsbury; res. Town Hill. 

7. Mercy, b. 1806; m. John Hamor; res. Hamor's Sand 

Point. 

8. Samuel, b. 1808 ; m. Lydia Young; res. Otter Creek. 

1 John Thomas, m. Elizabeth Peck in Providence, R. I., Oct. 

18, 1744. 
Their children were: 
I. Elizabeth, b. 1745. 

II. Zena, b. 1747. 

III. John, b. 1750. 

IV. Nicholas, b. 1753. 
V. Hannah, b. 1756. 

VI. Peggy, b. 1759. 
VII. Huldah, b. 1762. 
VIII. Amos, b. 1764. 

III. John Thomas, fifth of the name, m. (1) Elizabeth 
Cousins; she d. 1802, and he m. (2) Mrs. Elizabeth Parker of 
Blue Hill in 1803. He lived on what is now known as " the 
Comfort Thomas place." 

Children by his first marriage: 

1. John, b. 1777; m. Judith Thompson; res. Thomas Dis- 

trict. 

2. Benjamin, b. 1780; m. Polly Thompson; res. near North- 

east Creek. 

3. Hannah, b. 1782; m. Joel Emery; res. Emery District. 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 161 

to Bar Harbor probably in 1770 and afterwards 
moved to what is still known as the Thomas Dis- 

4. Oliver, b. 1785; m. Sally Rodick; res, Hull's Cove. 

5. Betsy, b. 1787. 

6. Comfort, b, 1789; m. Malinda Parker; res. on his father's 
farm. 

7. Cylinda, b. 1794; m. Samuel Bean of Sullivan. 

8. Sarah, b. 1797; m. Cornelius Thompson; res. Emery Dis- 
trict. 

9. Ebenezer, b. 1801. 
Children by his second marriage: 

10. Cornelius, b. 1804. 

11. Peggy, b. 1807. 

12. Parker, twin, b. 1810. 

13. Susannah, twin, b. 1810. 

14. Sophronia, b. 1812. 

IV. Nicholas Thomas, fourth child of John Thomas, 4th, was 
published to Lucy Somes, dau. of Lieut. Abraham Somes, Feb. 
18, 1780. "But inasmuch as there is no Lawful Authority 
within thirty miles of this place," they " mutually took each 
other for husband and wife in the presence of God " and wit- 
nesses. They settled in the Thomas District on the farm now 
owned by James K. Garland. Lucy (Somes) Thomas d. March 
18, 1792. He m. (2) Oct. 18, 1792, Jane Richardson, dau. of 
James and Rachel Richardson, who d. March, 1820. 

Children by first marriage: 

1. Nicholas, b. 1780; m. Hannah Wasgatt; res. Thomas Dis- 
trict. 

2. Lucy, b. 1782; d. 1793. 

3. Betsy, b. 1784; d. 1793. 

4. Abraham, b. 1785; m. Jane Berry; res. on his father's 
farm. 

5. Isaac, b. 1787; m. Sarah A. Parks; res. Presque Isle, Me. 

6. Jacob, b. 1789; d. 1793. 
Children by second marriage: 

7. Lucy, b. 1793. 

8. Betsy, b. 1794; m. William Leland ; res. Leland's Cove. 

9. Jacob S., b. 1796; m. Nancy P. Townsand; res. Thomas 
District. 



162 MOUNT DESERT 

trict near the mouth of Northeast Creek. John 
Thomas had eight children, and his sons John 
and Nicholas had fourteen and twelve children 
respectively, so that it is surprising to find that 
very few of the name are now on the voters' lists 
of the towns on the island. 

Job Stanwood,^ another early settler in the 
same locality, was the father of the Benjamin 
Stanwood whose name appears on the petition 
to Governor Bernard in 1768. As we have seen, 

10. Amos, b. 1798; d. 1803. 

11. James, b. 1800; d. 1804. 

12. David, b. 1802; d. 1832. 

On Dec. 24, 1820, Nicholas Thomas m. (3) Mrs. Lydia Had- 
ley, widow of Samuel Hadley. Mr. Thomas was a deacon of 
the Eden Baptist Church more than thirty years, and was the 
first person baptized by immersion on the island of Mount 
Desert. 

1 The Bangor Historical Magazine says that " Job Stanwood 
was b. in Gloucester and m. (1) Hannah Byles in 1749, (2) 
Martha Bradstreet." 

From Mount Desert Records: "A Record of the births 
and Deaths of Job Stanwood and his wife Martha and their 
children. 

"First: Son, Benjamin Bradstreet Stanwood was born January 
ye 19th 1766. 

"Second: Son, Humphrey Bradstreet Stanwood was born May 
ye 20th 1768. 

" Third: Son, Enoch Ticktum Stanwood was born April ye 21st 
1770. 

"Fourth: Son, David Stanwood was born August ye 22, 
1772. 

"Fifth: Daughter, Sarah Stanwood was born October ye 18, 
1774. 

"Job Stanwood d. July 27, 1776." His widow, Martha, m. 
Robert Young, who lived at Duck Brook. 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 163 

Benjamin was at that time a " squatter " on Cran- 
berry Island. He was the son of Job by his first 
wife. The father, with his second wife and 
several small children, came to Duck Brook not 
later than 1772. More than a hundred years 
afterwards the name Stanwood was bestowed by 
Hon. James G. Blaine upon his estate at Bar 
Harbor. Mrs. Blaine was a Stanwood. 

The Hull's Cove settlement was increased by 
three important families in the years following 
the organization of the plantation, — the De Gre- 
goires, who began to be taxed as residents of 
Mount Desert in 1791, and the families of Cor- 
nelius Thompson ^ and Samuel Hull. 

^ Cornelius Thompson, b. at New Meadows, Mass., in 1760; 

m. (1) Judith , (2) Peggy Thomas; res. Thomas District. 

She d. June 29, 1817. He m. (3) Mrs. Lydia Gilpatrick of 
Marblehead. They were published Oct. 22, 1817. He d. March 
28, 1835. 

Children by first marriage: 
I. Judith, b. 1779; m. John Thomas, Jr.; res. Thomas Dis- 
trict. 
II. Hannah, b. 1783; m. Rufus Robbins; res. Eden» 

III. Polly, b. 1785; m. Benjamin Thomas; res. Northeast 
Creek. 

IV. Cornelius, b. 1788; m. Sally Thomas; res. Emery District. 
V. Samuel, b. 1790. 

VI. William, b. 1792; m. (1) Thankful Salsbury, (2) Elmena 
Kittredge; res. Thompson Island. He was taken prisoner 
by the English in the war of 1812-15, and carried to 
England and confined in Dartmoor prison till the close 
of the war. 

Children by second marriage: 
VII. Huldah, b. 1794; m. Eben Oaks. 



-^ja^v4> 



164 MOUNT DESERT 

Thompson, with his wife Judith and three or 
four children, came from Salem previous to 1789 
and settled at Hull's Cove. He was at one time 
captain of the private armed brig Chase ; was 
also at one time colonel of the militia. He drew 
a pension as a Revolutionary soldier under act 
of Congress June 7, 1832. He was representa- 
tive to the General Court of Massachusetts from 
Eden, from 1809 to 1812. 

Samuel Hull was a sea-captain and came from 
Derby, Conn., and settled on the south side 
of Hull's Cove prior to 1789, where he "kept 
store" and built a number of vessels. He was 
the chief citizen of the little village, and the 
cove was named for him. Captain Hull took 
an active part in the organization and business 
of the towns of Mount Desert and Eden. The 
first town meeting of Eden was held at his 
house, and he was there chosen one of the first 
Board of Selectmen of Eden. He lived at Hull's 
Cove until 1817, when he moved back to Con- 
necticut. He had nine children, none of whom 
settled on Mount Desert, except Polly, who 
married Israel Higgins, 2d, and lived at Bar 
Harbor. 

VIII. Amos, b. 1796; m. Tabitha G. Twisden; res. Thomas Dis- 
trict and Salem. 
IX. Joseph, b. 1798. 

X, John, b. 1801; m. Adline Emery. They with two chil- 
dren were lost at sea, bound from Turk's Island to St. 
Johns, N. B. 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 165 

North of Hull's Cove the points, or the open 
ground at the head of the coves where some lit- 
tle stream provided a water supply, were taken 
up in the years after the Revolutionary War. 
Ebenezer Salsbury was joined at the cove that 
bears his name by Joseph Hopkins,^ who was a 
direct descendant of Stephen Hopkins of the 
Mayflower company, and who had been a neigh- 
bor of the Higginses and Youngs at Eastham on 
Cape Cod. 

About the same time Thomas Wasgatt^ set- 

^ Joseph Hopkins m. Mary , at Eastham, Jan. 11, 1770, 

where all their children but the youngest were born. They 
moved to Hull's Cove between 1788 and 1791, lived in a part of 
Levi Higgins's house a while, and then settled on the south side 
of Salsbury's Cove, 

He and his son Joseph were drowned by the upsetting of a 
boat in which they were bringing young cattle from one of the 
Porcupine Islands to Hull's Cove. 

His widow Mary m. (second wife) Levi Higgins. 

2 Thomas Wasgatt, m. (1) Eunice . She d. July 21, 1780. 

He m. (2) Hannah Thomas, dau. of John Thomas, 4th, and Eliza- 
beth (Peck) Thomas, April 17, 1781. He d. May 19, 1820. She 
d. March 1, 1840. 

Children by first marriage: 

I. Deborah, b. 1771, at No. 1, Union River. 
II. Thomas, b. 1774 at No. 1, Union River; m. Polly Frye; 
res. Bar Harbor. 

III. Eunice, b. 1777, at Mount Desert; m. David Stanwood; 
res. Bar Harbor. 

Children by second marriage: 

IV. Hannah, b. 1783; m. Nicholas Thomas, Jr.; res. Thomas 
District, Eden. 

V. John T., b. 1785; m. Huldah Godsoe; res. Eden. 
VI. William, b. 1787; m. Rebecca Hinman; res. Sedgwick. 
VII. Nicholas, b. 1789; d. 1863, unmarried. 



166 MOUNT DESERT 

tied a little to the east of Salsbury's Cove, and 
Amariali Leland^ at the west side of Leland's 
Cove. 

Still farther to the westward three more fami- 

VIII. Betsy, b. 1790; m. Benjamin Stanwood of Mattawam- 
keag. 
IX. Margaret, b. 1793; m. James Beverly; res. Bar Harbor. 
X. Zenas S., b. 1796; d. 1797. 
XI. Zenas S., b. 1801; m. Josiah B. Hadley; res. Northeast 

Creek. 
' Amariah Leland was b. in Sherborn, Mass., 1710. He m. 
Ursula Lovett at Sherborn, where they had nine children. In 
1769, he, with his wife and two sons, Ezra and Ebenezer, moTed 
to Mount Desert and settled at Leland's Cove, where he <1. 1790. 
Ezra was their seventh child, b. 1749; came to Eden in 1769; 
m. Sally Hamor, dau. of John and Mary (Rodick) Hamor, and 
settled at Leland's Cove, where his farm extended from the 
shore of Frenchman's Bay to Northeast Marsh. He was po-ob- 
ably the best farmer on the island at that time. 
Their children were: 
I. John, b. 1773; d. 1797. 

II. Amariah, b. 1774 ; m. Hannah Higgins ; res. Emery's 
Cove, Eden. 

III. Ezra, b. 1776; m. Mrs. Hannah Fish; res. Leland's Cove. 

IV. Ebenezer, b. 1778; m. Thankful Salsbury; res. Leland's 
Cove. 

V. David, b. 1780; m. Susan Leland; res. Hadley's Point, 
VI. Rhoda, b. 1782; m. Oliver Higgins; res. Bar Harbor. 
VII. Daniel, b. 1784; m. Sally Anderson; res. Trenton. 
VIII. Sarah, b. 1786; m. Zacheus Higgins; res. Bar Harbor. 
IX. Hannah, b. 1789; m. John McFarland; res. Trenton. 
X. Marian, b. 1790; d. 1838, unmarried. 
XL Huldah, b. 1792; m. Henry Higgins; res. Bar Harbor. 
XIL William, b. 1795; m. (1) Betsy Thomas, (2) Lydia Haynes; 
res. Leland's Cove. 

XIII. Betsy, b. 1797; m. . 

XIV, Experience, b. 1799; m. David Hamor, 3d; res. near 
Hull's Cove. 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 167 

lies from Eastham on Cape Cod settled as early 
as 1778, Joseph Mayo's/ at Old House Cove, 

^ Joseph Mayo and Ruth Snow were married at Eastham, 
Cape Cod, by Rev. Joseph Crocker, Nov. 12, 1767. She d. and he 
m. (2) in 1820, Mrs. Hannah Noble. Joseph and Ruth (Snow) 
Mayo with four children came to Mount Desert about 1778. 
Their children were : 
I. Gideon, b. 1768. 
II. Joseph, b. 1770; m. Mrs. Gennet Higgins; res. Fairfield, 
Me. 

III. Israel D., b. 1773; m. (1) Mrs. Joanna Knowles, (2) 
Mrs. Jennie Dennison, (3) Mrs. Mary Gilley; res. Israel's 
Point, Eden. 

IV. Prince, b. 1775; m. Priscilla Higgins; res. first on Town 
Hill, then in Kennebec County. 

V. Nathaniel, b. 1779 ; m. Priscilla Hopkins ; res. west of 

Northeast Creek. 
VI. Ruth, b. 1782; m. Oliver Higgins; res. Indian Point. 
VII. Thomas, b. 1784; m. Desire Knowlton; res. Town Hill. 
VIII. James, b. 1787; m. (1) Sally Richardson, (2) Anna Reed; 
res. Town Hill. 

I. Gideon Mayo, oldest child of Joseph and Ruth (Snow) 
Mayo, came to Mount Desert with his parents in 1778. He m. 

(1) Esther Hadley, dau. of Simeon and Olive (Black) Hadley 
in 1790. She was b. Feb. 1, 1771, and d. Sept. 23, 1808. He m. 

(2) Mary Higgins, dau. of Jesse and Priscilla (Snow) Higgins, 
June 22, 1809. She was b. Feb. 3, 1781, and d. April 16, 1856. 

Children by first marriage: 

1. Josiah, b. 1791; m. Patty Snow; res. Clark's Cove, Eden. 

2. Ebenezer, b. 1792; d. Dec. 21, 1808. 

3. Abigail, b. 1794; m. Elisha Richardson; res. Northwest 
Cove, Eden. 

4. Experience, b. 1798; m. William Hamor; res. Town Hill. 

5. Ruth, b. 1800; d. Nov. 17, 1808. 

6. Mary, b. 1803; m. John Downing; res. Sullivan, Maine . 

7. Joel, b. 1807; m. Betsy Salsbury; res. Town Hill. 
Children by second marriage: 

8. Esther, b. 1810; m. Amos T. Hadlev; res. Clark's Cove. 



168 MOUNT DESEKT 

Jesse Higgins's/ at Clark's Cove, and David Hig- 
gins's ^ at Spruce Point. 

9. Ruth, b. 1811; m. Christopher Bartlett; res. Bartlett's 
Island. 

10. Ebenezer, b. 1812; m. Olive Storer; res. Blue Hill. 

11. Zachariah, b. 1813; m. Rebecca Iladley; res. Clark's Cove. 

12. Salome, b. 1815; m. (1) Abram Treworgy, (2) Jesse Tre- 
worgy; res. Surry, Me. 

13. Jesse H., b. 1816; m. Abigail Milliken; res. Clark's Cove. 

14. Gideon, b. 1817; d. Nov. 27, 1846. 

15. Julian, b. 1819; m. Enoch Brown; res. Ellsworth. 

16. Priscilla, b. 1822; m. (1) John Pierce, (2) Conelly; 

res. Ellsworth. 

Gideon Mayo settled on the south side of Clark's Cove. He 
was deacon of the Eden Baptist Church for many years. He d. 
March 20, 1858. 

1 Jesse Higgins m. Priscilla Snow. They with three children 
moved from Cape Cod in 1778, and settled at the shore, on land 
now owned by their great-grandson. Dr. Loraine A. Higgins, 
between the Narrows and Clark's Cove. His brother David and 
family came about the same time and settled near the shore on 
what is now known as Spruce Point. They were the founders of 
the Higgins families in the western part of Eden. Jesse Hig- 
gins d. Dec. 16, 1815. 

The children of Jesse and Priscilla Higgins were: 
I. Ichabod, b. 1774; m. Sarah Richardson; res. Northwest 
Cove. 
II. Eunice, b. 1776; m. Shaw Higgins; res. Indian Point. 
III. Jesse, b. 1778; m. (1) Hannah Reed, (2) Betsy Rich- 
ardson; res. Northwest Cove. 

2 David Higgins, brother of Jesse Higgins. There is no re- 
cord of his wife's name, or of the birth dates of their children. 

His children were: 
I. Rebecca, m. James Ellingwood; moved to New York. 
II. Oliver, m. Ruth Mayo; res. Indian Point. 

III. David, m. (1) Olive Hadley, (2) Mrs. Polly Burns; res. 
Northwest Cove. 

IV. Shaw, m. Eunice Higgins; res. Indian Point. 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 169 

To the south of Bar Harbor two famihes took 
up land, James Burrill at Cromwell's Cove and 
later William Lynam ^ at Schooner Head. The 

IV. Mary, b. 1781; m. Gideon Mayo (second wife); res. 
Clark's Cove. 
V. Moses, b. 1783; m. Polly Higgins; res. Salt Pond, Eden. 
VI. Ephraim, b. 1785; m. Phebe Atwood; moved to Fairfield, 
Me. 
VII. David, b. 1788; m. (1) Elenor Wasgate, (2) Mrs. Har- 
riet Col well, (3) Mrs. Mary S. Davis; res. Town Hill. 
VIII. Joseph, b. 1790; m. Betsy Hamor; res. Town Hill. 
IX. Samuel, b. 1793; m. Lavinia Snow; res. Town Hill. 
X. William, b, 1795; m. Ruth Richardson; res. his father's 
farm. 
XI. Priscilla, b. 1798 ; d. Bar Harbor, Aug. 12, 1878, unmarried. 
XII. Phebe, b. 1804; m. A. Green Crabtree; res. Hancock, Me. 

V. Sparrow, m. Penelope Salsbury; res. Indian Point. 
VI. John, m. Margaret Flyn; res. his father's farm. 
VII. Priscilla, m. Prince Mayo; res. Town Hill, then to Ken- 
nebec County. 
VIII. Lydia, m. (1) Samuel Hadley, (2) Nicholas Thomas; res. 
Thomas District. 
IX. Affiah, m. (1) Nathan Salsbury, (2) Gideon Gidlescom; 

res. Salsbury's Cove. 
X. Hannah, m. Nathaniel Marcyes; res. Indian Point. 

XI. Richard, m. ; lived on Cape Cod. 

^ "William Lynam and his wife Chrosia came to Schooner 
Head previous to 1789. They were the grandparents of John 
S. Lynam and the great-grandparents of Fred C. Lynam of Bar 
Harbor. She d. Sept. 1822. 
Their children were: 

I. Frances, b. 1781; d. 1815. 
II. Jane, b. 1784. 

III. Judith, b. 1787. 

IV. Chrosia, b. 1790. 
V. Martha, b. 1794. 

VI. William, b. 1796; m. (1) Hannah Tracy, (2) Mrs. Eunice 
Clark; res. Schooner Head, Eden. 
VII. Ann, b. 1798. 



170 MOUNT DESERT 

shore from Schooner Head around to Somes 
Sound appears to have been unoccupied until 
after the opening of the nineteenth century. 
From John Peters's " Field Notes," the De Gre- 
goire deeds, and other sources we find that there 
were sixty-six families settled on the eastern half 
of the island on June 1, 1791. 

The outlying islands were occupied very early 
but the population was of a more floating charac- 
ter than on the main island. Christopher Bart- 
lett was on Bartlett's Island probably as early 
as 1762. John Robertson, Isaac Bunker, and 
Samuel Stanley were apparently camping or tem- 
porarily lodged on Great Cranberry the same 
summer. They were undoubtedly the people of 
whom Governor Bernard made note in his journal 
of October 3, 1762. Benjamin Spurling was prob- 
ably the first permanent settler on Great Cran- 
berry and Samuel Hadlock on Little Cranberry, 
where his descendants remain the chief people of 
the village of Islesford. He first came to Mount 
Desert to engage in lumbering where the timber 
was big along the shores of what we know as the 
upper and lower Hadlock Ponds above Northeast 
Harbor. His camps there were burned and he 
moved over on to Little Cranberry and started in 
the fishing trade, which his sons and grandsons 
carried on. His will was the first one recorded in 
the Hancock County Probate Records. It was 
dated October 16, 1790, and proved August 29, 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 171 

1791. To his son Samuel (of Cranberry Isles) 
he gave all his real and personal estate ; to his 
daughter Polly, wife of John Manchester, he 
gave five shillings ; to his daughter Lois Hadlock 
a like sum ; to his son Jonathan he gave $65 
when he shall arrive at the age of twenty ; to his 
daughter Tryphosa, $30 when she is eighteen ; 
to his son Epes Hadlock, $60 when twenty-one. 
His son Samuel was appointed executor. 

On February 16, 1776, the Massachusetts 
House of Representatives passed a resolve au- 
thorizing unincorporated plantations in Maine to 
hold meetings and choose officers and transact 
business "as if they were incorporated into a 
town." This resolve was "Received and con- 
curred by the Council," and a warrant was issued 
as follows on March 16, 1776 : — 

Lincoln ss : 

To Mr. Stephen Richardson of the Island of 
Mount Desert, According to a late resolve of this 
Colony, you are hereby required to warn and 
notify all the free holders and others, inhabitants 
of the Islands of Mount Desert and the Cran- 
berry and Placentia Islands, to assemble and meet 
together at the house of Stephen Richardson, on 
Saturday, the thirtieth day of this instant, March, 
at ten of the clock before noon, then and there 
to act on the following particulars viz : 



172 MOUNT DESEKT 

1st. To vote and choose a Moderator to regu- 
late said meeting. 

2nd. To vote and choose a clerk. 

3rd. To vote and choose three, five, seven or 
nine suitable persons for a committee of corre- 
spondence, safety and inspection as they may 
think most convenient. 

4th. To vote and act on any other article or 
matter which you may then think best and agree 
on when assembled as above. This to be posted 
up in some publick place, within the above men- 
tioned boundary, or coppeys thereof fourteen 
days beforehand, and for which this shall be 
your warrant. 

Given under my hand, at my dwelling at 
Narragaugus, this twelfth day of March in the 
sixteenth year of his Majesties Reign, Anno 
Domini 1776. 

Alexander Campbell^ 

Justice of the Peace. 

In accordance with this warrant the first pub- 

1 Alexander Campbell was the son of Alexander Campbell and 
Frances Drummond who came to America from the north of Ire- 
land in 1729. The younger Alexander was born September 16, 
1731. He married Elizabeth Nichols in 1759 and soon afterwards 
settled on the Narraguagus River just above the head of the tide, 
in the present town of Cherryfield. In the Revolutionary War 
he was colonel of the local militia and afterwards brigadier- 
general and major-general. He is mentioned as having " exten- 
sive and well-deserved influence." In 1785 he became naval 
officer for the district of Frenchman's Bay; in 1789 a judge of 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 173 

lie meeting held for organized action on the is- 
land was held at Stephen Richardson's at Bass 
Harbor. The following is the record : — 

March 30, 1776. 

In district meeting assembled according to the 
foregoing warrant. 

1st. Voted Mr. Josiah Black, Moderator. 

2nd. Voted James Richardson Clerk of ye 
District, also sworn by the Moderator. 

3rd. Voted that there be five men chosen, a 
committee of correspondence, safety and inspec- 
tion. 

4th. Voted that Mr. Ezra Young and Mr. Levi 
Higgins and Mr. Stephen Richardson and Mr. 
Isaac Bunker and Mr. Thomas Richardson be a 
committee of correspondence, safety and inspec- 
tion for ye insueing year. 

5th. Voted Mr. John Thomas and Mr. Abra- 
ham Somes and Mr. Ezra Young be a committee 
to bring in the order of the day. 

6th. Voted that Mr. John Tinker and Mr. 
Thomas Wasgatt afid Mr. Abraham Somes be a 
committee to take care of the meadows on this 
and the adjacent islands in this District, both salt 
and fresh, that strangers may not destroy them 

the Court of Common Pleas; in 1791, a senator in the General 
Court, to which he was reelected eight times ; and in 1794 one 
of the original Board of Overseers of Bowdoin College. Judge 
Campbell moved to Steuben a few years before his death in 
1808, but his body is buried in the Cherryfield graveyard. 



174 MOUNT DESERT 

or any other of the privileges belonging to said 
island. 

7th. Voted that a book be provided for records 
by subscription. 

8th. Voted that the committee for the mead- 
ows call on Mr. John Tinker and Mr. Amariah 
Leland to render an account of what hay was 
cut and carried off the island last year. 

9th. Voted that there be a publick road laid 
out and opened from Cromwells Harbor to Mr. 
Burrills. 

10th. Voted that Mr. John Thomas and Mr. 
Elisha Cousins and Mr. Silas Parker be a com- 
mittee to lay out the aforesaid road. 

11th. Voted that Mr. Josiah Black and Mr. 
Ebenezer Salisbury be surveyors to repair the 
aforesaid road. 

12th. Voted the committee for laying out the 
aforesaid road lay out a road from Mr. Thomas 
Wasgatt's to Mr. Black's cove. 

13th. Voted that there be three landing places 
laid out, one at Mr. Black's cove, one at Mr. 
Hadley's Brook and one at Mr. Higgins' Land- 
ing near Bar Island. 

14th. Voted that this meeting stands ad- 
journed till Monday the tenth of- June next, to 
meet at the house of Mr. Stephen Richardson at 
ten o'clock forenoon. 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 175 

The record of the adjourned meeting is as 
follows : — 

Mount Desert, June Ye 10, 1776. 

In district meeting assembled at ye house of 
Mr. Stephen Richardson by adjournment from 
March 30, 1776. 

16th. Voted that we proceed this day to choose 
one captain and two lieutenants for the company 
of malitia in this district. 

17th. Voted that Mr. Ezra Young be captain 
and Mr. Abraham Somes first lieutenant and Mr. 
Levi Higgins be second lieutenant for the com- 
pany of militia in this district. 

18th. Voted that we choose three men to settle 
Mr. Daniel Sullivan with him in the presence of 
Capt. A. Green Crabtree and Capt. Ezra Young. 

19th. Voted that Mr. Elisha Cousins, Mr. 
Amariah Leland and Mr. Silas Parker be a com- 
mittee to settle the above account with Mr. Sul- 
livan. 

20th. Voted that the committee of correspond- 
ence, safety and inspection apply to Major Shaw 
for a share of the provisions granted by the 
Colony. 

21st. Voted that no man intrude on any other 
man's former portions for hay, or any other arti- 
cle without leave from the former possessor. 

22nd. Voted that Mr. James Cockel be allowed 
a share in the marsh equal to other settlers and 



176 MOUNT DESERT 

Of the men whose names are mentioned in 
these records, Josiah Black, Levi Higgins, and 
Elisha Cousins were settled at Hull's Cove ; 
James Richardson and Abraham Somes at Somes- 
ville ; Thomas Richardson on the east side of 
Bass Harbor ; Thomas Wasgatt and Ebenezer 
Salsbury near Salsbury's Cove, and Silas Parker 
at Parker's Point north of Hull's Cove. The 
marshes referred to were at Bass Harbor, Pretty 
Marsh, and Northeast Creek. They were still 
evidently regarded as public property, for at a 
later meeting Elisha Cousins, Stephen Richard- 
son, and Silas Parker were chosen a committee to 
take care of the marshes, fence the marsh called 
Pretty Marsh, and " lay out the marshes into lots 
as may be wanted, which is not already possessed 
by ye inhabitants." The clerk was further in- 
structed to post up " notifications to forbid the 
inhabitants of the neighboring plantations from 
intruding on this island for hay, or any other 
article." 

The inhabitants of the island also petitioned 
the General Court of Massachusetts to protect 
them in their rights and give them titles to the 
lands which they occupied, as appears by the fol- 
lowing resolve, passed by the House of Repre- 
sentatives, November 9, 1776, and concurred in 
by the council November 12. 

"On the petition of the inhabitants of the 
island of Mt. Desert, Resolved, that those persons 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 177 

who have settled upon said island, and have been 
to the expense of building, etc., there, be still 
continued in the peaceable possessions of their 
improvements, till the further order of this court ; 
and it is recommended to the committees of the 
neighboring places, to afford them their assistance 
in preventing persons from robbing them of any 
of the products of their labors." 

It was doubtless in connection with this peti- 
tion that in the same year, 1776, Stephen Rich- 
ardson attended the General Court as represent- 
ing the people of Mount Desert. At a meeting 
held October 15, 1776, it was '' voted that Mr. 
Stephen Richardson's account is accepted and 
that each subscriber pay three shillings lawful 
money to James Richardson on or before our 
next annual meeting ; and that said James pay off 
said Stephen's account for going to ye General 
Court in behalf of this island in October, 1776." 

This amount was paid as shown by the follow- 
ing record : — 

An account of use made of the money of the district : 

Mount Desert, December ye 25, 1776. 
The District debtor to James Richardson for 

this book, 1£ 6s 8d ^ 

For Stephen Richardson going to the Gen- 
eral Court in behalf of ye Island in Oct. 
1776 £4 2s 4d 

1 The subscription for the purchase of this town book again 
discloses the names of the leading citizens at the time of organi- 
zation: — 



178 MOUNT DESERT 

The settlers were alive to the importance o£ 
improving their means o£ communication. At 
the plantation meeting of March 30, 1776, it 
was voted to lay out a public road approximately 
from Silas Parker's, just north of Hull's Cove, 
to James Burrill's at Cromwell's Harbor, just 
south of Bar Plarbor. This would give a trail 
at least to connect the scattered homes along 
the northeastern shore. At the same time John 
Thomas, Elisha Cousins, and Silas Parker were 
instructed " to lay out three landing places, one 
at Mr. Black's Cove, one at Mr. Hadley's Brook 
and one at Mr. Higgins' landing." These were 

Mount Desert, March 30th, 1770. 

Subscription for a Town Book Paid to James Richardson, Treas- 
urer, 

Capt. Ezra Young, 2s, lOd, Stephen Richardson, Is, 

Abram Somes, Is, 4d, 5s 2d 

John Thomas, Jr. Is, 3d, Josiah Black, 6d, Timothy 

Smallidge, 6d, 2 3 

Daniel Gott, Is, Levi Higgins Is, Silas Parker Is, 3 

James Burrill, Is, 2d, Peter Gott, Is, EzraLeland, 

7d 2 9 

James Richardson, Jr., Is, Elisha Cousins, Is, 6d, 

John Hamor, Is, 3 6 

Ebenezer Salsbury, Jr., Is, 2d, John Thomas, Is, 

3d, Thomas Richardson, Is, 4d, 3 9 

Job Stanwood, Is, 6d, Joshua Norwood, Is, Silas 

Bunker, Is, 3 6 

Thomas Wasgatt, Jr., Is, Caleb Phinney, Is, Na- 
than Scammons, Is, 3 

Simeon Hadley, Is 10 

1£ 7s lid. 



MOUNT DESERT PLANTATION 179 

just north of Hull's Cove, at Hull's Cove, and 
at the mouth of Eddy's Brook. The next year 
at the plantation meeting held March 25, 1777, 
four men were chosen " to open the road already 
laid out " and to lay out new and longer roads, 
namely, from Mr. Smalledge's ^ house on the hill 
on the north side of Hull's Cove to the head of 
Somes Sound and from there one road to Bass 
Harbor Marsh and to Thomas Foss's house which 
was on the south side of Southwest Harbor. 
The description indicates that the latter road was 
to follow the eastern shore of Echo Lake. These 
roads were nothing more than rough paths, and 
were impassable for vehicles until many years 
later. Very few horses were owned on the is- 
land until the summer business developed. The 
1777 plantation meeting also provided for four 
public landings, two at Southwest Harbor, and 
two at the head of the sound. 

The settlers too had their independent opinions 
about public affairs. When they were called 
upon to ratify the form of government agreed 
upon by the convention of the new State of 
Massachusetts on February 28, 1778, they voted 
to approve with three amendments and two ob- 
jections, which are as follows : — 

" 1st. Every person or persons shall have free 
liberty to petition the Governor and Senate and 

1 This was Timothy Smalledge, who with his wife Jemima 
and one child came from Naskeag Point to Hull's Cove very early. 



180 MOUNT DESERT 

House of Representatives as often as they shall 
find occasion. 

" 2nd. That any member of ye Senate, or 
House of Representatives shall have free liberty 
to speak his mind without being questioned 
afterwards. 

" 3rd. That ye Governor, Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor, or any Senator, or any member of the 
House of Representatives having been elected 
three or four years in succession shall not be 
chosen again for three or four years afterwards." 

The two objections were : — 

" Article ye 6th against each town paying the 
expense of their own representative. Article 11th 
against the Governor marching with ye militia 
without the consent of ye Senate. Voted to ap- 
prove the whole as now stated. Total 20 voted 
present." 

It is needless to pursue further the details of 
the Plantation Records. The harmony, the ease, 
the efficiency with which all this social and polit- 
ical organization was accomplished by a small 
body of untutored fishermen and lumberers may 
well be a wonder to people unused to the exer- 
cise of democratic power. These people, possessed 
of little more wealth than was represented in 
their axes and fish-hooks, were able, without 
commotion or friction or resort to any authority 
outside themselves, to constitute a self-governing 
community and to provide for its successful ad- 



MOUNT DESEET PLANTATION 181 

ministration. No hereditary chief, no conspicuous 
leader, no authoritative guide, dictated the course 
of action. The people themselves, without sug- 
gestion or aid from any leader whose name it is 
easier to rescue from oblivion than another's, 
organized their society and established their 
government. By their own wit and determina- 
tion and conscience, by practical discussion, by 
the instinct of self-preservation, these plain folk 
gave evidence of their power not only to clear 
the wilderness and to wring a livelihood from a 
hostile environment, but also to plant enduring 
institutions and upbuild a Christian Common- 
wealth. 



VI 
MOUNT DESERT TOWNSHIPS 



The word of the Lord by night 
To the watching Pilgrims came, 
As they sat by the seaside, 
And filled their hearts with flame. 

My angel, — his name is Freedom, — 
Choose him to be your king; 
He shall cut pathways east and west 
And fend you with his wing. 

Lo ! I uncover the land 
Which I hid of old time in the West, 
As the sculptor uncovers the statue 
When he has wrought his best; 

I will have never a noble. 
No lineage counted great; 
Fishers and choppers and ploughmen 
Shall constitute a state. 

Go, cut down trees in the forest 
And trim the straightest boughs; 
Cut down trees in the forest 
And build me a wooden house. 

Call the people together. 
The young men and the sires, 
The digger in the harvest field, 
Hireling and him that hires; 

And here in a pine state-house 
They shall choose men to rule 
In every needful faculty. 
In church and state and school. 

Emerson. 



MOUNT DESERT TOWNSHIPS 

Local history is the root of national history. 
Our national history has indeed its own wonder- 
ful and widespread pattern and design which can 
be seen and appreciated only when set before us 
upon an ample scale ; but the detail of the pattern 
and the individual threads of the fabric are to 
be found in local, family, village history. There 
are the dyes that give color to the story, there 
are the touches of reality that give human inter- 
est to the record. The warp and woof of history 
are in the daily doings of average people, in the 
loves and courtships and married devotion that 
we can read between the lines of every family 
genealogy, in the industry that cleared the forest 
and dug wells and laid out roads and raised 
dwellings, in the eager cravings that founded 
schools and churches. Therefore it is that we 
can trace the record of the nation that we love, 
and enter into the secrets of her growth and sta- 
bility when we survey the history of a typical 
New England town. 

The traits of the New England character that 
have proved the dynamic of national progress 
were abundantly illustrated in the history of 
Mount Desert. Certainly the first was enterprise 



186 MOUNT DESERT 

and pioneer pluck. The motto of the forefathers 
was, " What ought to be done can be done." 
The sound of the axe rang bravely through the 
woods, and gradually the trails were converted 
into roads, and slowly, by dint of patient toil, 
the points and hillsides became pastures. The 
people were extraordinarily industrious. No eight- 
hour law for them. They worked fourteen hours 
a day, and for recreation went fishing. The 
strength of the stumps they wrestled with and 
the weight of the stones they piled into walls 
went not only into their arms and backs, but into 
their characters. In spite, too, of the pressure 
of the wilderness around them and their iso- 
lated lives, the founders of the town had a good 
shrewd Yankee sense of humor, and many a sally 
and repartee went the rounds of the community. 
A mean man who did not live squarely up to 
his agreements must have been very uncomfort- 
able. 

The intelligence and stability and prosperity 
of the New England town is in no small degree 
the result of the form of local political organ- 
ization. When President John Adams was asked 
to mention the principal cause of the decision of 
the colonies to resist oppression in arms, h« 
answered : " The town organizations of New 
England. It was in these assemblies that the 
sentiments of the people were formed and their 
resolutions were taken." Thomas Jefferson wrote : 



TOWNSHIPS 187 

" The townships in New England are the vital 
principle of their government and have proved 
themselves the wisest invention ever devised by 
the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self- 
government and for its preservation." This testi- 
mony is confirmed by the judgment of all reflect- 
ing men. 

The town meeting was a little parliament, and 
a trained watchfulness over local interests was 
and is the best preparation for efficient service 
in broader spheres. The citizen gained in self- 
respect, in consciousness of power ; he learned to 
respect his own manhood and to submit to the 
will of the majority. His cooperation in local 
affairs insured his attachment to local interests ; 
the well-being the community offered him secured 
his affection, and its welfare was the aim of his 
ambition. He took part in every occurrence of 
the place, practiced himself in the art of govern- 
ment in the small sphere within his reach, ac- 
quired an appreciation of good order, and gathered 
clear, practical notions about his own duties and 
the extent of his rights. It will be well to pause 
a while to consider the detail of the machinery 
in this typical pioneer community. 

It was on March 24, 1788, that the General 
Court of Massachusetts, premising '^ that the in- 
habitants of that part of Lincoln County which 
is situated on and east of Penobscot river, labor 
under many inconveniences by reason of their 



188 MOUNT DESERT 

great distance from the places where the courts 
of judicature are holden," ordered " that the 
proprietors and settlers of the following town- 
ships and plantations, viz. Mount Desert, Deer 
Island, Fox Island, Gouldsboro', townships No. 
1, and 2, east of Union river ; No. 6, and 7, on 
said Kiver ; No. 4, and 5, upon Bluehill Bay ; 
No. 1, and 2, on the east side of Penobscot 
River ; No. 1, on Kenduskeag ; No. 1, on lower 
Dabscook ; and the township of Frankfort all on 
the west side of Penobscot river ; and the town- 
ship of Camden on Penobscot Bay, be directed 
and hereby are directed to appear if they see fit on 
second Wednesday of the first September next, to 
show cause if any they have why these respective 
townships should not be incorporated." ^ 

In the following year and in accordance with 
this resolution there was duly passed : — 

An act for incorporating the Plantation of 
Mount Desert, so called, in the county of Lincoln 
into a town by the name of Mount Desert. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of 
Representatives in General Court assembled and 
by the authority of the same that the Plantation 

^ The towns acted in accordance with this resolution, and 
Deer Island, Vinal Haven, Gouldsboro', Mount Desert, Trenton, 
Sullivan, Sedgwick, Frankfort, and Blue Hill were incorporated 
in 1789; Camden and Bangor in 1791; Bucksport in 1792; 
Steuben and Hampden in 1794; Harrington in 1796; Ellsworth 
and Orland iu 1800; Surrey in 1804. 



TOWNSHIPS 189 

called Mount Desert, together with the islands 
called Cranberry Islands, Bartlett's Island, Rob- 
ertson's Island and Beech Island, tog-ether with 
the inhabitants thereof be, and they hereby are, 
incorporated into a town by the name of Mount 
Desert, and the said town is hereby vested with 
all the privileges and immunities which other 
towns in this Commonwealth by 'law do, or may 
enjoy. 

And be it further enacted that Gabriel Johon- 
not, Esq., be, and hereby is impowered to issue 
his warrant directed to some principal inhabitant 
of the said town, requiring him to notify the 
inhabitants thereof to meet at such time and 
place as he shall therein appoint, to choose all 
such officers as towns are by law required to 
choose at their meetings in the month of March 
or April annually. 

In the House of Representatives Feb. ye 16th, 
1789. This bill had three several readings and 
passed to be enacted. 

William Heath, 
Speaker Pro tern. 

In Senate February 17th, 1789. This bill 
having had two several readings passed to be 
enacted. 

Samuel Phillips, President. 
Approved. John Hancock, Governor. 

A true copy, John Avery, Secretary. 



190 MOUNT DESERT 

By virtue of this act Gabriel Johonnot, Esq./ 
issued his warrant dated at Penobscot, March ye 
17th, 1789, to Abraham Somes directing him 
" to notify a meeting of the inhabitants of said 
Township at ten of the clock in the forenoon at 
the dwelling house of the said Abraham Somes 
for the following purposes, viz. : — 

" To choose all such officers as towns are by law 
required to choose at their annual meeting in the 
month of March or April, and to act on all such 
other business as shall be necessary to be done." 

Mr. Somes gave the notice, as shown by his 
certificate, as follows : — 

April ye 6th, Ye Year 1789. 

Pursuant to the within warrant I have notified 
the inhabitants to meet at the time desired. 

Abraham Somes. 

It appears that the voters were required to take 
and subscribe to an oath of allegiance before 
they could act in a town capacity. The signatures 
give us a roster of the citizens of Mount Desert in 

^ Gabriel Johonnot was the son of Zachary Johonnot and 
Elizabeth Quincy, and was born in Boston in 1748. He was pro- 
minent among the Revolutionary patriots, one of the committee to 
wait on the consignees of the tea cargoes, chairman of the com- 
mittee to confer with General Gage, and later lieutenant-colonel 
of Colonel Glover's regiment in the Continental army. He settled 
at Penobscot, now Castine, about 1784, and was a leading citizen, 
justice of the peace, and representative in the General Court. 
He removed later to Hampden, and died there October 20, 
1820. 




EMKA>"CE TU liAK HAKBOU 




SOMESYILLE 



TOWNSHIPS 191 

1789 which is probably complete. This document 
reads as follows : — 



Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Lincoln ss; 

In the thirteenth year of the Independence of 

the United States of America. 

We, the subscribers, severally do truly and 
sincerely acknowledge, profess, testify, and de- 
clare that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
is and of right ought to be a free, sovereign and 
independent State, and we do swear that we will 
bear true faith and allegiance to the said Com- 
monwealth and that we will defend the same 
against traitorous conspiracies and all hostile 
attempt whatsoever ; and that we do renounce 
and abjure all allegiance, subjection and obedi- 
ence to the King of Great Britain and every other 
foreign power whatsoever, and that no foreign 
Prince, person, prelate, State or potentate hath, 
or ought to have, any jurisdiction, superiority 
preeminence, authority of dispensing, or other 
power in any matter, civil, ecclesiastical or spiritual 
within this Commonwealth, or may be, vested by 
their constituents in the Congress of the United 
States; and we do further testify and declare 
that no man, or body of men hath, or can have 
any right to absolve or discharge us from the 
obligation of this oath, declaration or affirmation 
and that we do make this acknowledgement, pro- 
fession, testimony, declaration, denial, renuncia- 



192 



MOUNT DESERT 



tion and abjuration, heartily and truly according 
to the common meaning and acceptation of the 
foregoing words without any equivocation, mental 
evasion or secret reservation whatsoever. So help 
us God. 



■ Cornelius Thompson. 
James Richardson. 
Stephen Richardson. 
Andrew Tarr. 
Ezra Young. 
David Bartlett. 
Ezra Leland. 
Joshua Norwood. 
Elkanah Young. 
John Somes. 
John Cousins. 
Gideon Mayo. 
Joseph Hodgdon. 
Israel Higgins, Jr. 
Reuben Freeman, Jr. 

For the Year 1790. 
Elisha Cousins. 
Samuel Milliken. 
Joseph Mayo. 
William Heath. 
Ezra H. Dodge. 
John G. Richardson. 
David Hamor. 
Joseph Hopkins. 



Abraham Somes. 
Davis Wasgatt. 
Levi Higgins. 
James Richardson, Jr. 
John Manchester. 
Israel Higgins. 
Andrew Tucker. 
Jesse Higgins. 
John Hamor. 
Eleazer Higgins. 
Benjamin Atherton. 
Reuben Noble. 
Timothy Smallidge. 
Sylvanus Leonard. 
Peter Stanley. 



Israel Bartlett. 
Daniel Somes. 
Nathaniel Bennet. 
Simeon Hadley. 
Jacob Reed. 
Peter Gott. 
John Rich. 
Samuel Reed. 



TOWNSHIPS 



193 



David Rodick. 
Philip Langley. 
Stephen Salisbury. 
David Higgins. 
Elias Bartlett. 
Samuel Bowden. 
Robert Young. 
Nicholas Thomas. 
John Thomas, Jr. 
Solomon Higgins. 
Ephraim Pray. 
Christopher Bartlett. 
Benjamin Ward. . 
George Richardson. 
Jacob Lurvee. 
Faranton S. Farrell 
Reuben Freeman. 
Thomas Richardson. 
Joseph Gott. 
Peter DoUiver. 
William Roberts. 
Daniel Tarr. 
James Reed. 
Moses Ladd. 
John McKinzey. 
William Gilley. 
Ebenezer Leland. 
Thomas Wasgatt. 
Ebenezer Salisbury. 
Samuel Hadlock. 



Henry Knowles. 
Nathaniel Marcyes. 
Richard Heath. 
David Higgins, Jr. 
Joshua Mayo. 
Samuel Hull. 
John Rich, Jr. 
David Richardson. 
George Butler. 
David Wasgatt, Jr. 
Ephraim Pray, Jr. 
Aaron Sawyer. 
Thomas Manchester. 
William Norwood. 
Jonathan Hadlock. 
Bither Jordan. 
George Freeman. 
Enoch Richardson. 
Welch Moor. 
George Harmon. 
William Nutter. 
Joseph M. Ober. 
Tobias Fernald. 
Daniel Gott, 2nd. 
Simeon B. Milliken. 
Amos Eaton. 
Isaac Mayo. 
"Isaac Ober. 
Samuel Milliken. 
Tim othy Smallidge, 2nd. 



194 MOUNT DESERT 

It appears from this list that there were more 
than one hundred voters within the limits of the 
town. 

At the meeting held April 6 in accordance 
with the above warrant, the business of the town 
was transacted as follows : — 

" 1st. Ezra Young was chosen Moderator. 

" 2nd. James Richardson was chosen Clerk. . . . 

" 3rd. Chose Lieut. Levi Higgins, Lieut. Abra- 
ham Somes, Mr. Stephen Richardson, Mr. 
Thomas Richardson and Capt. Ezra Young Se- 
lectmen for ye ensueing year. 

"4th. Chose CorneHus Thompson and Joshua 
Norwood Constables. 

"5th. Chose Davis Wasgatt Grand Jury- 
man. 

" 6th. Chose Nicholas Thomas and x\ndrew 
Tarr, Surveyors of Highways. 

" 7th. Chose Ezra Young, Elkanah Young, 
James Richardson and John Manchester, Sur- 
veyors of Boards. 

"8th. Chose David Bartlett, Joshua Mayo, 
Israel Higgins, Jesse Higgins and Jacob Reed, 
Deer Reefs. 

" 9th. Chose John Thomas and Andrew Tarr, 
Cullers of Staves. 

" 10th. Chose Thomas Richardson and Levi 
Higgins, Ty thing men. 

" 11th. Chose David Hamor and Joseph Lequo 
Jr., Hog Reefs. 



TOWNSHIPS 195 

" 12th. Chose Ezra Young and Andrew Tuck- 
er, Fence Viewers. 

" Voted. For Governor — For his Excellency, 
John Hancock, Esq., thirty votes. 

" For Lieut. Governor — Samuel Adams, Esq., 
twenty-three votes. 

" For Senator — Daniel Coney, Esq., twenty- 
three votes. 

" For Register of Deeds for ye Middle Dis- 
trict — Mr. John Peters, thirty-five votes. 

" Voted that this meeting be adjourned to ye 
15th day of June next at the house of Lieut. 
Abraham Somes for the further choice of town 
officers and for any other business that shall be 
thought necessary to be done." 

At the adjourned meeting, June 15, it was 
voted " that it is the sense of the town that the 
Selectmen do the duty of the Selectmen and As- 
sessors for the present year. 

" Voted also that the Town expect that the 
Constables do the duty of Constables and Col- 
lectors for the present year, and until others be 
chosen and sworn in their stead. 

" Voted that James Richardson be Town 
Treasurer for the present year. 

" Voted that the town proceed as soon as pos- 
sible to assess and raise the sum of 24£ 5s 3d 
to pay the State Tax sent for. 

" Voted that the town raise 12£ for Town 
Charges for this year. 



196 MOUNT DESERT 

" Voted that the Selectmen be and are hereby 
impowered to assess the town and raise the 
money and pay the County tax if called for." 

The territory of the town thus started in busi- 
ness consisted of Mount Desert Island, Thomp- 
son's Island, the Two Thomas Islands, Bar 
Island, Sutton's Island, Bear Island, Greening's 
Island, the two Cranberry Islands, Baker's Island, 
Moose Island, Tinker's Island, and Bartlett's 
Island. This was a large territory and very in- 
convenient for the transaction of business. The 
town was traversed from east to west by moun- 
tains and nearly separated from south to north 
by Somes Sound. It was fourteen miles in a 
straight line from Hadley's Point on the north 
to Bass Harbor Head on the south, and about 
the same in breadth. The settlements were on 
Bartlett's Island, on the Cranberry Isles, and at 
Southwest Harbor, Bass Harbor, Seal Cove, 
Pretty Marsh, Beech Hill, Somesville, The Nar- 
rows, Hadley's Point, Salisbury's and Hull's 
Coves, Bar Harbor and Sandy Beach on the 
island of Mount Desert. There were no means 
of communication from one settlement to an- 
other except by water or over rough paths cut 
through the woods. It was no light undertaking 
for the citizens to gather in town meeting two 
or three times a year at Somesville or Bass Har- 
bor. 

The settlers of the town were, however, a 



TOWNSHIPS 197 

resolute folk, and all of about the same degree 
of material prosperity, of education, and of po- 
litical experience. They were men who toiled 
with heart and brain and hands to get their new 
settlement " out of the woods," ^nd went about 
their task with deliberation, patience, and cour- 
age. The foundations of the town were laid in 
its family life. A census of the inhabitants 
would have revealed very few bachelors and no 
old maids. It was a community of married cou- 
ples, usually with rapidly increasing families of 
children. The fundamental idea of the old-time 
New England family was that marriage was not 
a merely sentimental arrangement but an indus- 
trial partnership for life. The law of service had 
practically no exceptions. Doubtless in this, as 
in similar communities, there were some half- 
conscious class distinctions. Perhaps a dozen of 
the fifty or sixty original families were more or 
less " looked up to " and relied upon for leader- 
ship in industrial and political afPairs, but these 
partially superior families probably included the 
ten or twelve hardest- working men and women in 
the community. They literally fulfilled the Scrip- 
tural injunction : " Let him who is greatest be 
your servant." These families had no luxuries 
which their humbler neighbors did not equally 
enjoy. Men and women and children all alike 
worked with their hands. 

The darker side of this family life was, first, 



198 MOUNT DESERT 

its industrial intensity and, second, its ignorance 
or negligence of sanitary law. All the people 
■worked very hard and for long periods. The men, 
unless " lost at sea," were often long-lived and 
vigorous, but the women too often broke down 
under the unceasing strain of household service. 
Too many of the families of the town were deci- 
mated by inherited diseases, which better diet, 
less intensity of labor, and reasonably sanitary 
precautions might have averted. There was, too, 
in such a community a great lack of wholesome 
amusement. The play side of life had little or 
no opportunity for development. Every one was 
engaged in the occupation of getting a living 
out of the stubborn hills, out of the stormy sea. 
The political life was after the sturdy New 
England fashion. The place of town meeting 
was any convenient spot or house ; the persons 
entitled to participate, those who were willing 
and able to attend. The meeting was called to 
order by the town clerk, to whose written records 
we are indebted for almost all our knowledge 
of town transactions. The office of moderator 
generally devolved by the choice of the electors 
upon the most honorable citizen. His duty it 
was " to consider what is necessary to be done 
and to see that order be maintained." His title 
suggests that there was often something to mod- 
erate. Meetings, that is, were meant for debate 
and sometimes tended to turbulence. Discussion 



TOWNSHIPS 199 

was allowed to go on as long as any one had 
anything to say. Little record of the speeches 
remains, but it may be assumed that the general 
remarks were as a rule pointed and sensible. 
The Town Records show the nature of the prob- 
lems confronted and the progress made. The de- 
bates were over roads, landings, schools, churches, 
and the care of the poor. 

On June 15, 1790, the town voted that " the 
constables' fees for last year be thirty shillings 
for each constable, and that the Treasurer's fee 
be twelve shillings and that he procure a book 
and four quires of paper for the town's use, and 
that there be eight shillings a year allowed for a 
house to do the town business in ; " also voted 
" that there be a bounty of twelve shillings on 
the head of each bear, and two shillings on the 
head of each wild cat, and one penny on the head 
of each crow, all to be paid by the Treasurer by 
order from the Selectmen." Next year the town 
voted " off the bounty on bears, wolves, cats and 
crows." Cattle, sheep, and hogs caused trouble, 
and votes prohibiting their running at large and 
forbidding non-residents driving any kind of 
cattle into the town for grazing purposes were 
passed. In May, 1792, the town voted to build 
three pounds, one at Hull's Cove, near Mr. Elisha 
Cousins's, one near Mr. Joseph Mayo's at the 
Narrows, and one near Captain Davis Wasgatt's 
on Beech Hill, and chose Levi Higgins " to see 



200 MOUNT DESERT 

the pound built at Hull's Cove, Joseph Mayo 
to see the one built at The Narrows, and John 
Richardson to see the one built on Beech Hill." 

That there were different opinions as to the 
legality of the proceedings at town meetings 
then, as well as now, and that the voters had a 
summary way of settling these questions, is shown 
by the following vote passed at an adjourned 
meeting April 6, 1795 : " Agreeable to an ad- 
journment, and there being some dispute about 
the legality of said meeting, voted that the pro- 
ceedings of the foregoing and present meetings 
are legal and stand good." But notwithstanding 
this judicial decision, there was at least one dis- 
senting voice as shown by the following record : 
" Mr. Elisha Cousins protests against the pro- 
ceedings of the aforesaid meeting." 

The people of the town were as a rule poor, 
but they earned their own livings.^ The only 

1 The issuing of many warrants similar to the following may 
account for the scarcity of paupers. 
Hancock ss. 

To Stephen Richardson one of the constables of the town of 
Mount Desert in said county, Greeting : 

You are in the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
directed to warn and give notice unto Abner Coffin Luntof New- 
bury in the county of Essex and Reuben Noble of North Yar- 
mouth in the county of Cumberland, laborers, who have lately 
come into this town for the purpose of abiding therein, not 
having obtained the town's consent therefor, that they depart 
the limits thereof, with their wives and children and all under 
their care within fifteen days and also Sarah Meader, likewise 
the Negro that is called Neppo, together with Robert Scott and 



TOWNSHIPS 201 

record in regard to paupers is in the warrant for 
the annual meeting in March, 1793. " Art. 10th 
to consider on and vote what provision shall be 
made for the poor in said town," and at the 
meeting it was voted " that the article respecting 
the poor be left to the adjournment of this meet- 
ing," and at the adjourned meeting it was voted 
" that the selectmen carry [a widow] to Mr. Benj. 
Spurling's who promises to take her one year for 
her labor, without any charge to the town." 

Very little was done in the early years to pro- 
vide roads on the island. Practically all the set- 
tlers lived on the shore. They owned boats, but 
very few owned horses. At the first meeting held 
under the town organization Nicholas Thomas 
and Andrew Tarr were chosen highway survey- 
ors, but on April 4, 1791, it was voted " to do 
nothing to the highways." On April 2, 1792, 
David Hamor, Lewis Higgins, Thomas Richard- 
son, Peter Gott, and Samuel Reed were chosen 

his wife and child, and of this precept with your doings thereon 
you are to make return into the office of the clerk of the town 
within twenty days next coming, that such further proceedings 
may be had in the premises as the law directs. Given under our 
hands and seals at Mount Desert this third day of July Ano 
Domini, 1790. 

Ezra Young. J 

Thomas Richardson, y Selectmen for Mount Desert. 

Davis Wasgatt. ) 

These warrants were probably a mere form to comply with 
some state law in regard to paupers, for many of the most pro- 
minent men were thus warned to leave the town, while at the next 
town meeting they would be received as citizens. 



202 MOUNT DESERT 

a committee to lay out a road (two rods wide 
and no more) through the town and report to 
an adjourned meeting. It was also voted that 
there be four shillings tax laid on each poll and 
double the sum total of all the polls laid on 
the estates, to be worked out on the roads at 
four shillings per day for each man. There is 
no record, however, that anything permanent was 
accomplished. 

March 5, 1793, the town instructed the select- 
men to lay out all roads that shall be needed, but 
this vote was too general to be effective. In 1794 
the selectmen were instructed to lay out a road 
upon the petition of William Lynam and others 
from Cromwell's Harbor to Sand Beach, and this 
was done. They were also instructed to petition 
the Court of Common Pleas that the road lead- 
ing from Mr. Cousin s's through to the county 
road at the head of the sound may be a town 
road. This was the trail that led from Timothy 
Smallidge's house at Hull's Cove to the head of 
what is now called the Doctor's Creek. The road 
thus laid out was the main road from Hull's 
Cove to Somesville for many years, and could be 
traveled as late as 1850. 

In 1795 the selectmen were directed to peti- 
tion the General Session of the Court of Common 
Pleas for a road across the Narrows, and for 
leave to build a bridge over the Northeast Creek 
above the mill, and on January 6, 1796, the town 



TOWNSHIPS 203 

voted to build a bridge over Northeast Creek, 
and that all the bridges ou town and country roads 
now laid out be made a town charge, and chose 
Captain Ezra Young, Captain Davis Wasgatt, 
and Lieutenant Somes a committee to value and 
oversee the bridge and make a plan of the same 
and " get it built as cheap as they can." 

Provision was early made for schools, but the 
amount of money available was very small. On 
June 15, 1790, the town voted to raise eighteen 
pounds for the support of schools, and on the 
sixth day of September following, the town was 
divided into school districts as shown by the fol- 
lowing vote : — 

" Voted that one school district shall be from 
Capt. Young's down as far as Mr. Lynam's, in- 
cluding both families ; the next shall be from 
Capt. Thompson's up to Mr. John Cousin's, in- 
cluding both families ; the next from thence to 
the North East Creek ; the next from said Creek 
to North West Cove ; the next to consist of Pretty 
Marsh, together with Robinson's Island and Seal 
Cove ; the next to consist of Bass Harbor, to- 
gether with Duck and Goose Coves and Gott's 
Island [it would appear by this that Gott's 
Island was considered a part of the town ] ; the 
next South West Harbor, together wdth both 
the Sandy Points ; the next division shall be 
both the Cranberry Islands ; the next above the 



204 MOUNT DESERT 

hills with the Beech Hill; the next Bartlett's 
Island." 

In 1792 and 1793 the town raised each year 
for the support of schools in these districts fifty 
pounds, "to be paid in the produce of the 
country at the current market price." 

As the town of Mount Desert was very large 
in extent of territory, and communication between 
the settlements very difficult, its division was 
agitated soon after its organization ; but the first 
action taken was on April 6, 1795, when a vote 
was passed that the town ought to be divided, 
and the selectmen were instructed to draw a line 
where it should be divided and report to the town 
at a meeting to be held the next May. There is 
no record of the nature of this report, but at a 
meeting May 6, 1795, the town voted " to accept 
the report of the selectmen to divide the town." 
In accordance with this desire, on February 22, 
1796, the legislature of Massachusetts passed an 
act dividing the town of Mount Desert into two 
towns and incorporating as Eden the northern 
part of said town, " bounded southerly by a line 
beginning at the point north of Goose Marsh 
Falls, so called, thence running an easterly course 
to the top of the tide at the head of the Sound 
and thence easterly a straight course to the top 
of the tide at Otter Creek." 

This act was approved by the governor, Samuel 



TOWNSHIPS 205 

Adams, on February 23, 1796. The territory thus 
incorporated into the town of Eden consisted of 
" that portion of the island of Mount Desert lying 
northerly of the line before mentioned, with Bar 
Island, Green Island, Black Island, and Thomp- 
son's Island." ^ By virtue of the power vested in 
him by the act of incorporation, Paul Dudley 
Sargent,^ Esq., issued his warrant, dated at Sul- 
livan, March 18, 1796, to Ezra Young, requiring 
him to notify and warn the inhabitants of Eden 
to assemble at the house of Captain Samuel Hull 
at Hull's Cove, on Monday, the 4th day of April, 

1 These limits remained intact until 1849, when, on petition of 
William Thompson and by mutual agreement between the towns 
of Eden and Trenton, the legislature of Maine passed an act 
setting off from the town of Eden, Thompson's Island and a small 
portion of the island of Mount Desert, and annexing it, with the 
inhabitants thereon, to the town of Trenton. This act was ap- 
proved of by the governor, John W. Dana, June 27, 1849, since 
which time no changes have been made in the boundaries. 

2 Paul Dudley Sargent was born in Salem in 1745, and was 
brought up in Gloucester. He early identified himself with the 
patriot cause, and led a company to the siege of Boston. He was 
soon commissioned colonel, was wounded at Bunker Hill, had 
command of the Castle in Boston Harbor after the surrender, 
and took part with his regiment in the battles of Harlem Heights, 
Trenton, and Princeton. After the war he engaged in business 
as a merchant and shipowner, but was unfortunate, and in 1787 
removed to a farm in Sullivan, Me., where for forty years he was 
the leading citizen. He was the first chief justice of the Court 
of Common Pleas and the first judge of probate in Hancock 
County, the first representative of Sullivan in the General 
Court, and for many years postmaster. He was one of the origi- 
nal overseers of Bowdoin College. In 1772 he married Lucy 
Smith Saunders, and they had twelve children. The family 
genealogy is recorded in the Bangor Hist. Mag. ii, 125. 



206 MOUNT DESERT 

1796, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, to choose 
such officers as towns are by law required to 
choose at their annual meetings, and to transact 
such other business as might legally come before 
the meeting. Captain Young issued his %varrant 
dated March 26, 1796, notifying the freeholders 
and others, inhabitants of the town of Eden, to 
meet at the time and place aforesaid to choose a 
moderator and clerk, and also to give in their 
votes for governor, lieutenant-governor, senator, 
register of deeds, and county treasurer. 

At this meeting Ezra Young was chosen 
moderator ; Thomas Paine, town clerk ; Ezra 
Young, Levi Higgins, and Samuel Hull, select- 
men ; David Hamor, treasurer ; Israel Higgins, 
constable ; Thomas Wasgatt, Ebenezer Salsbury, 
David Hamor, and Joseph May, surveyors of high- 
ways ; Ezra Young and Elisha Cousins, surveyors 
of boards ; David Hamor, surveyor of shingles ; 
Henry Knowles, surveyor of staves; Daniel 
Richardson and Daniel Rodick, fence viewers ; 
Elkanah Young, sealer of leather ; Timothy 
Smallidge, culler of fish ; Stephen Salsbury, hog 
reever; Joseph Mayo and Ebenezer Salsbury, 
pound keepers ; Joseph Mayo and Solomon Hig- 
gins, field drivers ; Ebenezer Salsbury and Moses 
Wasgatt, tything men. It was " voted to build 
a pound near the centre of the town that neat 
cattle may go at large ; that sheep shall not go 
at large; that town meetings in future shall be 



TOWNSHIPS 207 

held at the dweUing-house of Ebenezer Salsbury 
(at Salsbury's Cove) ; to adjourn this meetmg to 
the aforesaid Salsbury's at 10 o'clock in the fore- 
noon of the 18th instant April." 

At the adjourned meeting it was voted to raise 
for ordinary town expenses, $60. For building 
a bridge over Northeast Creek, and mending 
roads if found necessary, $168, and for the sup- 
port of schools, $60, — a total of $228.^ 

1 It is interesting to observe on what this tax was levied. There 
were 89 poll taxes. Of improved land, 10,929 acres ; of im- 
provable land, 12,380 acres ; of unimprovable land, 656 acres ; 
35 dwellinghouses ; 4 warehouses ; 6 sawmills j 1 gristmill ; 24 
barns ; 3 shops ; 8175, money on hand ; 202 tons of vessels ; 9 
faculties valued at S150 each ; 14 horses, 62 oxen, 127 cows 
and young cattle, and 104 swine. Total value of real estate, 
$27,891 ; total value of personal estate, $9,434. Total valuation, 
$37,325. 

Bartholomew De Gregoire was taxed for 1 house, 2 sawmills, 
1 barn, 16 acres of improved land, 134 acres of improvable land, 
1 cow, 4 swine, and $175 in money. 

James Campbell, Seth Doane, William Lynam, Andrew New- 
march, Elkanah Young, John Joy, and Jediah Stetson were each 
taxed for one faculty, valued at $150 ; John Cousins, Ezra Young, 
and Robert Young for one half of a faculty each ; and Nehemiah 
Higgins for one third of a faculty. 

The statistics for the town for 1797, the year after incorpora- 
tion, are as follows : Number of polls, 91. Poll tax, $1.40. 
Value of horses, $45 ; of cows, $15 ; of oxen, $22.50 ; young 
cattle, $9.09 ; swine, $2.00. Tons of shipping, 126 ; money on 
hand, $300 ; no. of houses, 52 ; no. of warehouses, 6 ; no. of 
gristmills, 1 ; no. of sawmills, 6 ; no. of barns, 25 ; no. of 
shops, 4 ; state tax, $77.64 ; county tax, $77.64 ; no. of horses, 
15 ; no. of cows, 81 ; no. of oxen, 60 ; no. of young cattle, 62 ; 
no. of swine, 92 ; no. acres improved land, 855 ; no. acres un- 
improved land, 13,937 ; no. acres unimprovable land, 502 ; 



208 MOUNT DESERT 

The occupations of the settlers of Eden were 
fishing, farming, lumbering, building vessels, and 
coasting. From 1809 to 1825 there were more 
than twenty-five vessels built in the town, aver- 
aging more than one hundred tons each. The 
Custom House record of May 12, 1809, enrolls 
the "Schooner Hazard, of Eden, 120 90-95 
tons, Israel Higgins, master, Samuel Hadlock, of 
Mt. Desert, owner, built at Eden, 1809." This 
was the first vessel built. From 1825 to 1860 
the town was noted for its large number of sea- 
captains. At one time there were eleven men 
belonging in Eden who were masters of ships. 

Farming Avas of course very limited, but most 
of the settlers raised more or less rye, wheat, 
barley, corn, and potatoes. There were sawmills 
on Northeast Creek, at Hull's Cove, on Duck 
Brook, and Cromwell's Harbor Brook. These 
mills probably furnished all the boards needed 
in town, and perhaps some for shipment to other 

whole no. of acres, 15,294 ; county tax, $232.00 ; overlay, 635.99. 
Total tax, $423.27. 

The following named persons were all whose tax on their 
property exceeded ten dollars : David Hamor, $13.65 ; Samuel 
Hull, $15.94 ; Ezra Leland, $17.97 ; John Thomas, $13.75 ; 
Nicholas Thomas, $11.67 ; Thomas Wasgatt, $10.41 ; Ezra 
Young, $11.27 ; Henry Jackson, $34.91. 

William Lynam, Andrew Monarch, Ezra Young, John Joy, 
and Jediah Stetson were each taxed for a faculty valued at $60. 
David Hamor was the only person taxed for money on hand, 
$3.00. Henry Jackson was taxed for 8000 acres of unimproved 
land at two per cent, and eighty acres of improved land at six 
per cent. 



TOWNSHIPS 209 

places. Thomas Wasgatt was taxed for a grist- 
mill on Duck Brook in 1796. 

When the new town was set off from Mount 
Desert there were six school districts in Eden, 
but there were no school buildings. The teach- 
ing was done in conveniently located dwellings. 
The new town voted to make new boundaries for 
the districts, and to divide the money as follows : 
District No. 1, from William Lynam's at Schooner 
Head to Ezra Young's at Duck Brook, $124.60 ; 
No. 2, from Samuel Hull's at Hull's Cove to 
Samuel Fish's, near the Ovens, $99.10 ; No. 3, 
from Daniel Hamor's at Sand Point to Ezra Le- 
land's at Leland's Cove, $57 ; No. 4, from Ezra 
Leland's to Northeast Creek, $32.89; No. 5, 
from Northeast Creek, upwards, $86.40. 

In 1807 the town and District No. 3 built 
a house 20X26 feet at Salsbury's Cove for a 
combined town house and schoolhouse at a cost 
of $350. In 1828 the town purchased the dis- 
trict's interest in this house for $60, and occupied 
it for a town house until 1843, when the present 
town house at Salsbury's Cove was built, and 
the old house given to Mr. Elisha Cousins. On 
March 14, 1808, the town decided, by lot, to 
build a schoolhouse in District No. 4, in No. 5 
in 1809, in No. 2 in 1810, and No. 1 in 1811, 
and that each district should receive $120 when 
it became due. 

In April, 1796, the town of Eden raised $168 



210 MOUNT DESERT 

to build a britlge across Nortlieast Creek ; in 1797 
it raised $112 to purchase timber for this bridge, 
and voted to begin work on the second Monday 
of June. In 1798, 1799, and 1800, the town 
raised each year one dollar on each poll, and 
double that amount on the estates, for the repair 
of roads and bridges, and fixed the price of labor 
on roads at one dollar per day, for a man, and 
four shillings per day for a yoke of oxen. There 
was no bridge over Flying Place till 1823, none 
over the Old House Cove till 1824, and none 
over the Narrows until 1837, when a toll bridge 
was built by a company. 

It was probably owing to the lack of roads 
that the island had no mail privileges for more 
than thirty years after the incorporation of Mount 
Desert, the nearest post-office being at Ellsworth. 
The earliest record of any mail service on the 
island is a contract made the 16th day of Octo- 
ber, 1820, with Josiah Paine of Portland and 
Alexander Rice of Kittery, Me., to carry the 
mail " from Ellsworth, by Jordan's river school- 
house in Trenton, and Mount Desert Narrows, to 
Mount Desert once a week ; to leave Mount De- 
sert Thursday at 5 a. m. and arrive at Ellsworth 
by 11 A, M. ; returning leave Ellsworth at 1 p. m. 
and arrive at Mount Desert at 7 p. m." This con- 
tract was made for four years, beginning Jan- 
uary 21, 1821, and ending December 31, 1821. 
Anderson Hopkins was the first mail carrier. 



TOWNSHIPS 211 

The only post-office was at Eden. In 1830 the 
mail began to be carried from Eden to Somes- 
ville, Southwest Harbor, and Bass Harbor, and 
in 1840 to Bar Harbor, where the post-office was 
named East Eden. 

The military history of the island in the two 
wars with England reveals the patriotism and the 
genuine sacrifices of the people. The island was 
remote and utterly defenseless, but the inhabit- 
ants were ready to bear their full share of the 
pubHc burdens. In the Revolutionary War, David 
Richardson volunteered as a private, and served 
one month, and Jonathan Rodick served one 
month and eighteen days in Captain Daniel Sul- 
livan's ^ company, which went to Machias twice 

1 Daniel Sullivan was born at Berwick, Me., 1738, and was 
the second son of John and Marjory Sullivan. His brothers were 
General John Sullivan of Revolutionary fame, Governor James 
Sullivan of Massachusetts, and Hon. William Sullivan, lawyer, 
of Boston. He married Anne Paul of York, and after her early 
death removed, about 1763, with a number of families from the 
same neighborhood, to New Bristol, now Sullivan. Two years 
later he married, at Fort Pownall, Abigail, daughter of John and 
Hannah Bean, his next neighbor. In 1776 he was commissioned 
captain of the local militia company, and with it took part in 
the unsuccessful expedition against Bagaduce (Castine) in 1779. 
On February 24, 1781, the British ship Allegiance, running 
up Frenchman's Bay, landed a party just above Bar Harbor, 
and tried to seize Ezra Young, captain of the Mount Desert 
militia company, and then crossing the bay, landed a party at 
midnight at Point Harbor, where they burned the houses of 
Captain Sullivan and Mr. Bean, and carried Captain Sullivan 
away a prisoner. His wife and five children saved nothing, and 



212 MOUNT DESERT 

in 1777 and 1778. Volunteers in the same com- 
pany in the unfortunate expedition against Bag- 
aduce (Castine) in 1779 were : Levi Higgins, 
lieutenant ; Elisha Cousins, sergeant ; Timothy 
Smallidge, corporal ; Israel Higgins, Daniel 
Richardson, and Jabez Salsbury, privates. The 
pay-roll indicates that these men served two 
months. In Captain SuUivan's company in the 
sixth regiment of militia, ordered on duty by 
Colonel John Allan, October, 1780, were : James 
Campbell, clerk ; Jonathan Doane and Freeman 
Knowles, privates. Joseph Mayo, who lived at 
the Narrows, and Ephraim Haynes, who lived at 
Northwest Cove, and who was 104 years old 
when he died, were Revolutionary pensioners. 
Colonel Cornelius Thompson, who lived on 
Thompson's Island, was at one time during the 
Revolutionary War captain of the privateer brig 
Chase, and he was also an officer in the militia. 
He drew a pension as a Revolutionary soldier 
under act of Congress, June 7, 1832. He was 
representative to the General Court from Eden 
from 1809 to 1812. 

took shelter in the fish house. As Captain Sullivan refused to 
take the oath of allegiance to the British government, he was 
carried to Halifax, and later confined for four months on the 
Jersey prison ship at New York. Finally, through the exertions 
of his brother, General Sullivan, he was exchanged, but died of 
his sufferings before he could reach home. When the town was 
incorporated in 1792, it was named Sullivan in his honor. His 
descendants have placed a monument to his memory in the grave- 
yard near where his homestead stood. 



TOWNSHIPS 213 

During the "War of 1812 there was much suf- 
fering and many deprivations among the inhab- 
itants of the island. EngHsh cruisers infested 
the bays and harbors along the coast of Maine, 
and the settlers were obliged to pay tribute to 
them or have their property destroyed. It is 
recorded, for instance, that Captain Amariah 
Leland was building a small vessel in his yard, 
near Emery's Cove, when a barge from an English 
privateer landed, and he was obliged to pay $500 
or have his vessel burned. These privateers were 
so numerous that it was dangerous to attempt to 
carry wood or lumber to market by water, or to 
bring supplies of any kind from the westward ; 
consequently the inhabitants had to subsist on 
game and fish, and what they could raise on 
their farms. William Mason and Thomas Paine, 
coming in from fishing in a sailboat one day in 
1814, were fired at by the crew of an English 
barge and Mason was wounded. Paine landed at 
Bar Island and Mason was carried to the house 
there, where he died the next day. William 
Thompson, William Wasgatt, and Elisha Young 
were taken by the English and carried to Halifax, 
where Wasgatt and Young were kept for some 
time as prisoners of war, while Thompson was 
carried to England and confined in prison till the 
war closed. 

The chief event of the war-time on the island 
itself was the skirmish at Norwood's Cove. One 



214 MOUNT DESERT 

clay in August, 1814, a British sloop of war, the 
Tenetlos, sailed in the Eastern Way and anchored 
in the deep water between Bear Island and Sut- 
ton's. She had been seen outside of the Duck 
Islands by two fishermen, Avhom she tried to en- 
gage as pilots, but they would have nothing to 
do with her. The chief man on Great Cranberry 
was Captain Benjamin Spurling, founder of all 
families of that name. Two of his vessels were 
at that time laid up in Norwood's Cove, and lest 
they should attract notice from outside, their 
topmasts had been taken down and green tree- 
tops put in place, while the vessels themselves 
were run up at high tide into Harmon's brook. 

When Captain Spurling saw the masts of the 
Tenedos looming up over Sutton's Island, he 
knew the intent of her coming. Taking a man, 
he rowed over to the ship and tried to dissuade 
those in command, offering them a yoke of 
slaughtered oxen if they would forego their pur- 
pose. The British officers replied very truculently 
that it was their commission to burn Yankee 
vessels, and he should go with them and see 
them burn. They wanted him for their own pro- 
tection, thinking the people would not fire at 
them when they saw him. Spurling warned them 
not to enter the cove, saying that he had three 
sons over there who could shoot a duck on the 
wing. He was a man of fiery temperament, and 
his indiofnation knew no bounds. 



TOWNSHIPS 215 

Meanwhile two young men from Great Cran- 
berry rowed over to Southwest Harbor and trav- 
eled all night up through the farms and hills 
to the other side of the mountains, sounding 
the alarm. All night long men were hurrying 
singly or in squads to the scene of action. How 
many came cannot be learned, probably about 
seventy, as the settlers at that date were few 
and scattered. Jacob Lurvey, a veteran soldier 
of the Revolution, lived in the old house recently 
burned in the field as one turns to the left on 
the Somesville road to climb Beech Hill. He 
had one musket, and that his son Isaac, eighteen 
years old, had marched away with in the night. 
Toward morning the father himself, who had 
long been sick in bed, grew restless and finally 
got up and began to dress. " What are you 
thinking of, Jacob? " cried his wife. " You, sick 
man, and going down to the fight ! " And then, 
to head him off utterly, "What could you do 
without your musket? Isaac 's got that." " Yes, 
I 'm going. By this time some of our men have 
been wounded, and there '11 be a musket for me." 
Old John Richardson, another soldier of the 
Revolution, lived up on Beech Hill. He was 
deaf as a post, yet heard the summons, but did 
not seem to hear where the rendezvous was to 
be, and so came down the slope on the north 
side of the cove, in full view of the British in 
their barge. His neighbors called to him not to 



216 MOUNT DESERT 

expose himself but to come around where they 
were. He heard nothing and apparently feared 
nothing, for singly there behind a rock he loaded 
and aimed at the enemy, who finally thought 
to annihilate him with a charge from a shotted 
gun, which threw up the earth in a mass of turf 
and stones and dust, in which brave old John 
disappeared, to reappear again after a while load- 
ing and firing as if nothing had happened. 

The battle proved to be short in duration and 
at very short range. In the early dawn of Tues- 
day, August 9, a twelve-oared launch, full of 
men, with a swivel-gun in the bows, left the war- 
ship and drew in toward Clark's Point. Another 
smaller barge followed. The combatants were 
near enough to converse, to chaff with and chal- 
lenge each other before the skirmish began. The 
militia were in the dense thicket along the shore, 
but every now and then one of them would run 
out on the rocks, or warn the invaders that the 
woods were full of men and they would be 
routed. Especially when the form of the brave 
Captain Spurling was seen in the barge, an 
effort was made to save his life by urging the 
British to give up their undertaking. One of 
his sons, Robert, rushed out on the high rocks 
below the present Downs cottage. His plea was 
most earnest to have his father spared. The 
officer bade his oarsmen lay to their oars, and 
ordered the old captain to be croAvded down in 











HP « 






■ 




.•t'lj^ii 




<* 

4 < 

1 




V9i||iL 


1 



TOWNSHIPS 217 

the bottom of the barge. There the soldiers 
walked over hhn, or on him, as best suited their 
mood, until he raised himself up, said he might as 
well die in one way as another, and cried back to 
his son and the men on the shore, "Never mind 
me, Rob, I am an old man ; but give it to these 
dashed Britishers as hard as you can." Through 
an opening in the thicket the British caught 
sight of a man coming up from the Point with a 
bag over his shoulders laden with bullets. It was 
Captain Nathan Clark. They fired at him, but 
missed the mark. " Better grease your dashed 
old muzzles and try again," was his retort. The 
militia fired from behind some natural breast- 
works covered with a thicket above. This en- 
abled them to rest their guns, pick their men, 
at the same time to be themselves unseen. The 
reply from the barge's pivot-gun, though meant 
to be most sweeping and devastating, went wild, 
high overhead, breaking branches, hitting rocks, 
but wounding no one. Even the British musket 
fire, aimed at men behind trees on the south side 
of the cove, filled the trees with bullets, but hit 
nobody. Isaac Lurvey for years afterward 
showed the tree he stood behind, riddled with 
seventeen bullets above his head. 

It soon became evident to the British com- 
mander, who had not yet really entered the cove, 
that his men were simply targets for the marks- 
men who, were invisible if not invulnerable, and 



218 MOUNT DESERT 

that he had wholly underrated their capacity for 
defense, so he ordered his barges to draw off, 
with their killed and wounded. It was noticed 
that five instead of twelve were at the oars as 
they rowed away. As to the losses of the British, 
the only data we have is the testimony of two 
boys, who, like boys of to-day, were apt to be 
around when not wanted, using their eyes. These 
boys, sons of William Moore, living near the 
present site of the Burnham cottage on Sutton's 
Island, had gone aboard the Tenedos to sell 
raspberries. They were on board when the de- 
feated barge came back with its dead. They saw 
seven lifeless bodies raised by tackles and slowly 
let down into the hold of the ship. On the 
American side the only damage was that Captain 
Samuel Hadlock of Little Cranberry had two fin- 
gers grazed by a bullet.^ 

1 Dr. Street wrote the story of this skirmish for the annual 
meeting of the Southwest Harbor Village Improvement Society 
in 1902, and it was printed in the Northeast Harbor and Seal 
Harbor Herald of September 19, 1902. He derived his information 
from the descendants of the men who participated, particularly 
from Rev. O. H. Fernald, — whose grandmother watched the 
fight from the window of the house on Fernald's Point, — Levi 
Lurvey, William Herrick, W. H. A. Heath, Jacob Mayo, and 
Mrs. J. A. Holden. The story of the Moore boys was told by 
them to Miss Mary Carroll, who told it to Dr. Street. Mr. E. A. 
Dodge, who had talked with survivors of the skirmish, recorded 
the story in his little history in 1871, and Chisholm's Guide 
Book had a version of the same tale. Colonel William E. Had- 
lock of Islesford, whose great uncle was wounded, lias written 
out still another version as he had the story from his family. 



TOWNSHIPS 219 

It remains only to record here the further and 
final subdivision of the original town of Mount 
Desert. 

On March 16, 1830, by act of the Maine legis- 
lature, the two Cranberry Islands, Sutton's, and 
Baker's and Bear Islands were set off from Mount 
Desert, and incorporated into a town by the name 
of Cranberry Isles. Samuel Hadlock, Enoch Spur- 
ling, and Joseph Moore were chosen the first 
Board of Selectmen. 

The earliest settlers on the Cranberry Isles had 
made no permanent stay. They spent a year or 
two fishing and cutting staves, and then moved 
on. The Bunker, Spurling, and Stanley fami- 
lies were the first to establish themselves per- 
manently. Benjamin Spurling, who came from 
Portsmouth, N. H., in 1768, was, as we have seen, 
the founder of a large and prosperous family 
that has for four generations flourished on Great 
Cranberry. The lot of Aaron Bunker, containing 
one hundred acres, was laid out by John Peters 
in 1790. His descendants still occupy the land 
and are numerous in the community. John Stan- 
ley, who died on Great Cranberry in 1790, was 
the ancestor of many families of the Stanley name 
on the islands and in Hancock County. His 
widow's lot of sixty-two acres was at the entrance 

The Eden town records show that the Eden militia were called 
out in 1814 to go to Southwest Harbor to protect vessels from 
the British. 



220 MOUNT DESERT 

of the Pool, which Is the characteristic feature of 
Great Cranberry Island. 

Sutton's Island, or Lancaster's Island, as it was 
originally called, was first settled by Joseph Lan- 
caster, who came from Sullivan, and by Isaac Rich- 
ardson, son of James Richardson, town clerk of 
Mount Desert. William and Joseph Moore were 
also early settlers. Sutton, from whom the island 
takes its present name, was apparently a squatter, 
who, it is said, was a sympathizer with the British 
in the War of 1812 and " moved on " to the Pro- 
vinces. William Moore kept sheep on Bear Island, 
and later moved there and was the fii'st keeper 
of the Bear Island lighthouse. William Gilley 
settled on Baker's Island in 1812, and he too be- 
came the keeper of the lighthouse built in 1828. 
His descendants still live on the island. The 
first inhabitants of Little Cranberry were John 
Stanley, son of the John Stanley who died on the 
greater island in 1790, and Samuel Hadlock, who, 
as we have already seen, moved from Hadlock's 
Pond to Little Cranberry. Samuel Hadlock the 
younger cleared a large tract and engaged suc- 
cessfully in farming, but his first money was 
gained by a fishing-trip on the Labrador coast. 
There he dried his fish and then proceeded with 
them to Spain in a schooner of forty-eight tons, 
making a successful voyage and very profitable 
sale of his cargo. He then built a store on the 
west side of the island at Hadlock's Cove, where 



TOWNSHIPS 221 

he did a good business in general merchandise. 
He died on the island at the age of eighty-four 
years in 1854, and his wife Sarah (Manchester) 
died in 1861 at the advanced age of ninety. Ed- 
win, the youngest son of Samuel Hadlock, suc- 
ceeded his father in business. He also built and 
commanded vessels, as had his father before him. 
The last vessel built at the island was named the 
Samuel Hadlock and commanded by Edwin for 
several years. She was a brigantine of 120 tons, 
and was finally wrecked off Cape Hatteras. The 
other sons of Samuel Hadlock were also seafar- 
ing men, and died or were lost at sea in distant 
parts of the world. His daughters married and 
moved away, excepting Abigail, who married Cap- 
tain Samuel Spurling of Great Cranberry Island. 
Edwin died on the island in 1875, and his sons 
William Edwin and Gilbert Theodore then con- 
ducted the business on a larger scale. They 
greatly improved the wharves and buildings, and 
sent vessels to Labrador, Grand Banks, and other 
distant fishing grounds. They also engaged in 
mackerel and herring fishing nearer home. 

Colonel William Edwin Hadlock, the oldest 
son of Edwin Hadlock, was born at Little Cran- 
berry Island in 1834, and was educated in the 
Winthrop School of Boston and the Classical 
Institute of Yarmouth, Me. After some years 
of business life in Portland he returned to the 
island to engage with his father in the ship stores 



222 MOUNT DESERT 

and fishing business established by his grand- 
father. He was elected to the legislature of Maine 
in 1861, and served as a member of the House 
in the session of 1862, and was then commis- 
sioned lieutenant-colonel of the 28th Regiment 
of Maine Infantry. After a year's service at the 
front, in which Colonel Hadlock distinguished 
himself for ability and personal bravery, he was 
obliged to retire from the army because of im- 
paired health, and again resumed his business at 
Cranberry Isles. He was twice elected senator 
from Hancock County, and was chairman of the 
Committee on Military Affairs in the sessions of 
1872 and 1873. In 1876 he was again elected to 
the House of Representatives. Colonel Hadlock 
has for many years maintained an influential posi- 
tion in the affairs of his native town, and to his 
enterprise is largely due the development of the 
island and village of Islesford. 

Gilbert T. Hadlock, another son of Edwin, was 
one of the builders of the Life Saving Station 
established at Islesford in 1879, and served as 
the first keeper. Captain Hadlock held this posi- 
tion for several years, and then resigned to estab- 
lish a steamboat route among the islands. He 
holds a medal from the government for heroic 
service in the saving of hfe. Captain Franklin 
Stanley succeeded Captain Hadlock as com- 
mander of the Life Saving Station, and with his 
efficient crew of hardy surfmen has prevented 



TOWNSHIPS 223 

many wrecks and brought much credit to the 
service. Harvey Denning, the youngest son of 
Edwin Hadlock, chose the legal profession, and 
was employed in important cases in Bucksport 
and Portland, and later in Boston, New York, 
and Washington. He was a man of marked per- 
sonality, who died suddenly in Boston, in the 
height of his power, on the 13th of April, 1897. 

In 1838 a third division of the town of Mount 
Desert set off Bartlett's, Hardwood, and Rob- 
inson's or Tinker's Islands, and incorporated 
them into a town named Seaville, but twenty-one 
years afterwards, February 24, 1859, this act was 
repealed and Bartlett's Island was returned to 
Mount Desert, and Hardwood and Tinker's Is- 
lands annexed to Tremont. 

The last division of the original town took 
place on June 3, 1848, when an act of the legis- 
lature of Maine set off " All that part of the 
Town of Mount Desert, in the County of Han- 
cock, lying South of a line commencing at An- 
drew Fernald's North line of Somes' Sound; 
thence across the mountain to the head of Dem- 
ing's Pond ; thence continuing the same course 
to Great pond; thence across said pond to the 
Southeast corner of lot number one hundred and 
fourteen, on a plan of said town by John S. 
Dodge ; thence Westerly on the South line of 
said lot number one hundred and fourteen to 



224 MOUNT DESERT 

Seal Cove Pond, and continuing the same course 
to the middle of said pond ; thence Northerly up 
the middle of Upper Seal Cove Pond to the head 
thereof, and continuing the same course to the 
South line of lot marked ' Reuben Noble/ on 
said plan ; thence Westerly on the South line of 
said last named lot to the sea shore, together 
with Moose Island, Gott's Island, and Langley's 
Island, with the inhabitants thereon," and incor- 
porated the separate town of Mansel. 

A warrant was issued on August 2, 1848, by 
Wilson Guptill, justice of the peace, to John 
Rich, bidding him notify and warn the inhab- 
itants of the new town to meet on Wednesday, 
the 9th day of August, at ten o'clock in the fore- 
noon, at the red schoolhouse in Bass Harbor, to 
choose all necessary town officers, adjust matters 
with Mount Desert, and transact such other busi- 
ness as might legally come before the meeting. 

At the time and place specified, the citizens 
met and were called to order by John Rich. 
Alfred Harper was chosen moderator; John S. 
Dodge, town clerk ; Shubal D. Norton, Seth H. 
Clark, John S. Dodge, selectmen and overseers 
of the poor; Barnard Rummell, town treasurer; 
Rev. C. M. Brown, S. D. Norton, J. L. Martin, 
school committee ; Eben Fernald, James R. Free- 
man, Edwin Kittredge, Jeremiah Moore, Joshua 
Eaton, Zebediah Rich, Elias Rich, Ambrose Thurs- 
ton, WilHs Carver, Isaac M. Ober, Benjamin 



TOWNSHIPS 225 

Norwood, Samuel 0. Harper, school agents; 
Enoch Lurvey, Andrew Tarr, Horace Durgan, 
John Dolliver, Joshua Eaton, Robert Rich, John 
M. Gott, John Murphy, Benjamin Atherton, Jr., 
Benjamin Norwood, Samuel 0. Harper, highway 
surveyors ; Wilson Guptill, David Hopkins, Eaton 
Clark, James Reed, Joseph Gott, constables; John 
Rich, collector of taxes ; John F. Norwood, John 
Rich, James Reed, Joseph Gott, Benjamin Gilley, 
fence viewers ; William Heath, Eaton Clark, 
David Hopkins, pound keepers ; Benjamin Ben- 
son, Jr., Henry Clark, Abraham Richardson, 
auditors of accounts.^ 

The name of the new town, which reproduced 
the original English name of the island. Mount 
Mansell, was not acceptable to the people, and so 
it was changed by act of the legislature dated 
August 8, 1848, to Tremont. The name Mansell, 
altered, for some unknown reason, to Manset, is 
preserved in the name of the post-office on the 
southern shore of Southwest Harbor. 

^ As this book goes to press (1905) an act is before the Maine 
legislature to divide the town of Tremont and incorporate the 
town of Southwest Harbor. The new town is to contain that 
part of Tremont lying east of a line drawn from the head of 
Ship Harbor and running a little west of north by Bass Harbor 
Creek and over the west peak of Western Mountain to the old 
town line. 



VII 

MOUNT DESERT CHURCHES 



We love the venerable bouse 

Our fathers built to God ; — 
In heaven are kept their grateful vows, 

Their dust endears the sod. 

Here holy thoughts a light have shed 

From many a radiant face, 
And prayers of humble virtue made 

The perfume of the place. 

And anxious hearts have pondered here 

The mystery of life, 
And prayed the eternal Light to clear 

Their doubts, and aid their strife. 

From humble tenements around 

Came up the pensive train, 
And in the church a blessing found 

That filled their homes again; 

They live with God; their homes are dust; 

Yet here their children pray. 
And in this fleeting lifetime trust 

To find the narrow way. 

Emerson. 



MOUNT DESERT CHURCHES^ 

When we consider the scattering character of 
the Mount Desert settlements, the poverty of the 
settlers, and the difficulties of communication 
when the roads were nothing more than rough 
trails through the woods, it is not surprising 
that the beginnings of definite church organiza- 
tion were long delayed. Occasionally a traveling 
minister must have visited the island from one 
of the older settled communities to the westward, 
coming for a wedding or a funeral and holding 
perhaps a religious service or two at some set- 
tler's house. The marriage of James Richardson's 
daughter, Rachel, to Davis Wasgatt, on August 
9, 1774, was an event of sufficient importance 
to bring the Rev. Daniel Little ^ all the way from 

^ For the material out of which this chapter is compiled Dr. 
Street was indebted to the indefatigable labors of the Rev. Dean 
A. Walker, Ph. D. 

2 Daniel Little, Jr., was born in Haverhill and studied divinity 
with Rev. Joseph Moody of York. He then taught school at 
Wells, and when the Second Parish was organized in that part of 
Wells which is now Kennebunk he was invited to become its 
minister, and was installed August 6, 1750. In 1772 and again 
in 1774 he made missionary journeys among the settlements to 
the eastward, traveling on foot, on horseback, and in boats, 
preaching in barns or dwellings or under the trees. On October 
7, 1772, he organized at Blue Hill the first church east of the 



230 MOUNT DESERT 

Kennebimk. But the next marriage of Tvhich we 
have record had to be conducted without minis- 
ter or justice. Abraham Somes's daughter, Lucy, 
one of Governor Bernard's " four pretty girls," 
married Nicholas Thomas on February 22, 1780, 
and this is the record of the beginning of a long 
and prosperous union : — 

Mount Desart, February 22d, 1780. 

This is to sartify that, inasmuch as there is no 
Lawful Authority within thirty miles of this place, 
whereby we can be married as the Law directs 
— we do, with the consent of our 2:>arents, and in 
presence of these witnesses, solemnly promise and 
engage to each other in the following words : — 

I, Nicholas Thomas, do, in the presence of 
God, angels and these witnesses, take Lucy Somes 
to be my married wife to live with her, to love, 
cherish, nourish and maintain her in prosperity 
and adversity, in sickness and health, . . . and to 
cleave to her alone as my only and lawful wife, 
as long as God shall continue both our lives. 

I, Lucy Somes, do, in presence of God, angels 
and these witnesses, take Nicholas Thomas to be 

Penobscot. In 1774 he is recorded as baptizing 250 persons, 
marrying many couples, and traveling by water 500 miles. Mr. 
Little was fond of a roving life, and the people of his parish 
appear to have made no objection to his frequent absences. In 
1787-88 he was commissioner to the Penobscot Indians. He 
was one of the first trustees of Bowdoin College, and a member 
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He died Decem- 
ber 5, 1801. He was twice married and has many descendants. 



CHUECHES 231 

my married husband, to live with him, to honor 
and obey him in all things lawful, in prosperity 
and adversity, in sickness and health, and ... to 
cleave to him alone as my only and married 
husband as long as God shall continue both our 
lives. 

o. 1 ( Nicholas Thomas, (L. S.) 
^^"^ 1 Lucy Somes, (L. S.) 

In presence of these witnesses : — 

James Richardson. 
Samuel Reed. 
James Richardson, Jr. 
Daniel Richardson. 
Abraham Somes. 

A true copy, attest, Abraham Somes, Clerk. 

It was not until October 17, 1792, thirty years 
after the first settlement of the island and three 
years after the incorporation of the town, that 
the first church was formed. Its organization was 
after the most primitive Congregational method. 
Without aid of council and without any minister 
present, but following instructions furnished by 
a Rev. Samuel McClintock of Greenland, N. H., 
eight women and six men, living at or near 
Southwest Harbor, subscribed their names to a 
covenant and organized as the Mount Desert 
Congregational Church. It was two years more 
before they were visited by an ordained minister, 



232 MOUNT DESERT 

Rev. Samuel Eaton of Harpswell, when they 
adopted a new covenant and observed for the 
first time the Lord's Supper. 

The first action toward employing a minister 
is set forth in the record of a town meeting 
held April 1, 1793, when it was voted "that 
the town send to the westward for a minister 
on probation and that Mr. Thomas Richardson, 
Capt. Davis Wasgatt and Capt. Ezra Young be 
a committee for that purpose." They were in- 
structed to write to the same Rev. Samuel Mc- 
CHntock "to provide a candidate to preach the 
gospel to us, and we will make said candidate 
good for his time and expense." On September 
7, 1793, the selectmen were instructed to apply 
to Mr. Daniel Merrill for his assistance in pro- 
curing a minister to preach to the people three 
months the first part of the next season. On 
May 6, 1795, the town authorized the select- 
men " to draw money out of the treasury to pay 
a minister if one can be had," and again on April 
4, 1796, a similar vote was passed. All these 
negotiations were in vain, and the town had no 
regular preaching and no settled minister. It is 
not indeed to be wondered at that ministers were 
not especially attracted by the claim of so remote 
and poor a settlement, with a parish covering a 
very large territory and with the offer that he 
should simply be made " good for his time and 
expenses." 



CHURCHES 233 

In a letter of the Rev. Peter Powers of Deer 
Isle, dated March 20, 1799, and printed in 
Greenleaf's " Ecclesiastical History of Maine," he 
describes a revival at Mount Desert, and writes : 
" Our Association had licensed dear Mr. Eaton 
to preach, who improved his talent laboring 
night and day among them whom the Lord had 
remarkably owned." Ebenezer Eaton was a lay- 
man who began to preach about 1788 and was 
licensed to supply the Mount Desert church in 
1793. He seems to have preached occasionally 
from that time, and he certainly acquired land 
at Southwest Harbor. Apparently he went also 
from time to time to the settlements on the north- 
eastern shore, for in the town records of Eden 
it is recorded that at a town meeting held Sep- 
tember 7, 1798, the selectmen were authorized 
to "agree with Mr. Ebenezer Eaton to preach 
to us." 

Not until 1801 was Mr. Eaton regularly in- 
vited to settle as minister of the Mount Desert 
Congregational Church, and then he declined on 
the ground that he did not wish to be ordained. 
He continued, however, to serve as a stated 
supply, and the town of Mount Desert, appar- 
ently satisfied with his services, gave up all ef- 
fort to obtain a settled minister. Mr. Eaton's 
reasons for refusing ordination cannot be known 
with certainty, but the following explanation is 
offered in the Autobiography of Rev. Lemuel 



234 MOUNT DESERT 

Norton, the Baptist preacher who came to Mount 
Desert in 1817. " Here," he says, " was a large 
Congregational Church. Brother Eaton was their 
minister, and had been for many years, though, 
being rather illiterate, he had never been or- 
dained, because it was against their rules to 
ordain an illiterate man to the work of the min- 
istry." Somewhere about 1823, when nearly 
sixty-five years of age, Mr. Eaton consented to 
be ordained. He served the church continuously 
till 1832, and occasionally thereafter for two 
years more as health permitted, preaching and 
administering the sacraments in all parts of the 
town. He lived at Southwest Harbor in a house 
adjoining the present residence of Captain Jacob 
S. Mayo, and according to a survey by Salem 
Towne he owned at one time nearly all of 
Clark's Point between the harbor and Norwood's 
Cove and extending westward to the top of Free- 
man Ridge. Mr. Eaton died at Sedgwick, June 
1, 1841, at the age of eighty-seven years. 

A minister at last obtained, the people of the 
town of Mount Desert proceeded to provide places 
of worship. Under date of April 1, 1799, the 
town voted that there be two meeting-houses 
built, and that the town be divided into two dis- 
tricts for this purpose, the dividing line to begin 
at the southern end of Ezra H. Dodge's marsh 
(at Seal Cove) and run to the top of Western 
Mountain, thence to the top of the mountain be- 



CHURCHES 235 

tween the ponds (Beech Mountain), and then to 
the top of the eastern mountain (Dog Mountain) 
westward of the sound ; and that each district 
"get the frame of its meeting house raised this 
fall, and before the next annual meeting have 
boards and shingles and nails at the place where 
the meeting is raised." Committees were ap- 
pointed for each district to supervise the work 
and assess taxes, and two very plain meeting- 
houses were accordingly built, one on the road 
about half-way between Seal Cove and Somes- 
ville, and the other at Southwest Harbor, in the 
part now called Manset, near where the old Bass 
Harbor sled road leaves the present main road of 
Manset. These two meeting-houses are first men- 
tioned in the records of the Mount Desert Con- 
gregational Church in 1802 as the " Northen " 
and "Sutheren " meeting-houses. The latter was 
never finished, and, on the building of the pre- 
sent white meeting-house about 1828, was torn 
down to furnish material for the new building, 
though there is also a tradition that the frame of 
it was bought by one Benjamin Moore and drawn 
by many yoke of oxen down to his place to serve 
as a barn. The " Northen " meeting-house also 
was never finished inside ; and some time not 
earlier than 1816 was burned in a forest fire. 
Its underpinning may still be seen on a ledge 
near the quarry on Birch Hill a quarter of a mile 
from Pretty Marsh. Here charred wood, shingle 



236 MOUNT DESERT 

nails, and bits of melted glass may still be found 
among the moss. 

The first meeting-house in the town of Eden 
was built at Hull's Cove in 1797. It was begun 
by the energy of the settlers before any church 
had been organized, and it stood on the hill where 
Mrs. M. H. Hinckley's house now stands. The 
town took up the enterprise before the house was 
finished, and at a town meeting held September 
16, 1797, the following votes were passed : — 

" Voted, that Ezra Young, Esq., be moderator. 

" Voted, to give Mr. Downs a call. 

" Voted, to pay Mr. Downs one hundred and 
fifty dollars for the year ensuing. 

" Voted, forty dollars for the purpose of mov- 
ing Mr. Downs. 

" Voted, that the Selectmen should purchase 
the meeting house for the town, of the proprietors. 

" Voted, one hundred and fifty dollars in 
money and material for the use of the meeting 
house this fall. 

" Voted, Ezra Young, Esq., Mr. David Hamor 
and Mr. Levi Higgins be a committee to carry 
on the building of the meeting house." 

The house was a large high-posted building 
with a porch on the south end. The pulpit was 
high and entered by a door. There were large 
box pews with seats on three sides, and the pews 
along the wall were raised ten inches above those 



CHURCHES 237 

in the centre. There was a good deal of moulding 
about the interior, and altogether, as Mr. Hamor 
writes, " it seemed to my boyish mind a very grand 
and sacred place." Until about 1860, when it 
began to decay, it was the best finished meeting- 
house on the island. It was finally torn down in 
1865. 

On July 5, 1799, a meeting was held at the 
house of Levi Higgins at Hull's Cove which re- 
sulted in the organization of the Baptist Church 
of Eden, the second church on the island and the 
oldest Baptist church in Hancock County. The 
moderator and preacher at this meeting was 
Elder James Murphy. A covenant was adopted 
and thirty persons ^ " mutually joined themselves 
to the Lord." "Everything," says the first 
church record, " seemed to be performed with a 

^ The thirty charter members of the church were Nehemiah 
Higgins, David Higgins, Jr., Thomas Wasgatt, Jr., Elkanah 
Higgins, Ephraim Haynes, Israel Higgins, John Cousins, Peggy 
Thompson, Hannah Cousins, Pamelia Young, Mercy Higgins, 
Hannah Wasgatt, 2d, Louis Cousins, Mercy Higgins, 2d, Polly 
Hamor, Joseph Cousins, Ezra Leland, John Thomas, Samuel 
Hadley, Oliver Thomas, Nicholas Thomas, Lydia Hadley, Han- 
nah Leland, Sally Hamor, Tabitha Sraallidge, Hannah Wasgatt, 
Jane Thomas, Margaret Stanwood, Hannah Stetson, Azubah Hig- 
gins. These were representative people. They owned about one 
third of the taxable property of Eden. Of the forty-four dwell- 
inghouses in the town, they owned nine. Twenty-two of the 
thirty were married. It is curious that the name of Levi Higgins, 
at whose house the meeting was held and who was, as we have 
seen, a leading citizen, does not appear on the list. The name 
of his eldest son, Nehemiah, stands first, and his second son, 
Elkanab, was chosen deacon and treasurer. 



238 MOUNT DESERT 

most solemn joy." Elkanah Higgins and Nicho- 
las Thomas were chosen deacons " on trial." John 
Thomas was chosen clerk and Elkanah Higgins 
treasurer. 

We have seen that at the town meeting in 
September, 1799, Mr. Benjamin Downs was en- 
gaged to preach at a salary of $150. He was 
settled as the first minister of the Baptist Church 
on June 15, 1801, but his stay was short. 
Charges of immoral conduct were brought against 
him, and he was deposed and dismissed from the 
church. For twelve years there was no regular 
preaching and no settled minister in Eden.^ In 
1814 Samuel Swett was given a call and remained 
four months, when he too was obliged to leave 
town for the same reasons that required the dis- 
missal of Mr. Downs. 

It was evident that some better inducements 
must be offered before a good minister could be 
secured. Accordingly, on April 4, 1814, the town 

1 Elders James Murphy, Isaac Case, John Chatburn, Benja- 
min Lord, Daniel Merrill, Samuel Jackson, Moses Allen, and 
others preached and administered the ordinances of the church 
occasionally during this period. Mr. Hamor says, " Rev. John 
Urquhart preached and performed the marriage ceremony occa- 
sionally in town between 1796 and 1800. 

"In 1800 Rev. James Covel was chosen by the town on a com- 
mittee to remonstrate against moving the courts from Castine to 
Ellsworth. On March 10, 1801, the town voted that the meeting 
be opened by prayer by the Rev. James Covel. He was a Metho- 
dist and organized the first Methodist class in town, which became 
extinct soon after he left the town." 



CHURCHES 239 

voted to buy for $800 the Stephen Salsbury farm 
at Salsbury's Cove and to hold it for the use and 
occupancy of a minister. Two years later Elder 
Enoch Hunting was called by the town to be the 
"gospel minister," and it was voted to give him 
the use of fifty acres of land with the buildings 
thereon, and ten acres of woodland, and fifty 
dollars a year for the first two years, and after 
that the use of the farm and buildings and $250 
a year as salary, and if he remained the town's 
minister fifteen years, the town agreed to give 
him a deed of the property. 

Elder Hunting was installed May 14, 1818. 
His ministry was marked by three periods of re- 
vival, one of moderate strength in 1820, a slight 
awakening in 1823, and another in 1829. In this 
year, the Eastern Maine Baptist Association met 
at Hull's Cove and discussed with great interest 
such topics as Bible and Tract Societies, Missions, 
and Temperance. March 5, 1832, the town voted 
to raise $200 for the support of the gospel, and 
" that Elder Hunting might leave the town to 
preach not exceeding one half of the year, and 
that the selectmen be a committee to settle with 
him at the expiration of the fifteen years and 
give him a deed of the farm on which he lived 
according to agreement." On August 30, 1832, 
Elder Hunting resigned, having been pastor of 
the church more than fourteen years, and having 
preached in the town more than fifteen years. 



240 MOUNT DESERT 

It was during Mr. Hunting''s ministr}' that a 
discussion about the site of the meeting-house 
grew warm. The union of church and town in 
the control of ecclesiastical affairs worked badly, 
and the Town Book records many bitter debates 
over the place of meeting. It must be remembered 
that this parish extended from William Lynam's 
house at Schooner Head to Shaw Hig-mns's house 
at Indian Point, a distance of more than eighteen 
miles, and that there was but one minister to 
occupy this ground and he a Baptist ; that there 
were many persons who were not Baptists who 
were taxed to support a Baptist minister; and 
that the town decided, by vote, when and where 
meetings should be held. From the very nature 
of the case hard feelings were engendered. 

Dissatisfaction became so general and the 
quarrel so bitter in 1832, that by the request of 
the selectmen and other citizens of the town, a 
committee consisting of one person from each 
school district was formed, who made the follow- 
ing report : — 

Agreeable to previous appointment, we, the 
undersigned, met in committee at the dwelling 
house of Mr. Ebenezer Salsbury on Saturday the 
16th day of February, 1822, for the purpose of 
taking into consideration the cause of the un- 
happy difference that hath long menaced the 
peace of the good people of said town, and to 



CHURCHES 241 

make some arrangements in order to do away 
said difficulty and recommend the same to our 
fellow townsmen so that every section thereof 
may have a just and equal share of the preached 
gospel. Your committee having attended to the 
duty assigned them beg to report as follows : 

On the meeting of said committee Mr. Jere- 
miah Stevens called to order and stated the 
object of the meeting ; first, he was unanimously 
called to the chair ; second, chose Abraham 
Thomas, clerk ; third, voted to adopt and pursue 
the following principle as the foundation of their 
deliberations. 

To take the centre of the admeasurement of 
said town by the chain ; the centre of the popu- 
lation ; the centre of the valuation of the pro- 
perty ; and from the three to find the proper 
centre ; and likewise to find the centre of each 
division by the same process, with this difference, 
always, of having in view the local situation of 
the place where the centre of each wing may fall, 
and in case either of the wing centres should fall 
in a place that is not convenient to hold meet- 
ings, or to erect a building for public worship, 
then to vary said centre either east or west so 
as to occupy the nearest dry spot that may be 
convenient for the purpose above described. 

Fourth, Voted that it is the opinion of this 
committee that the mile mark near the dwelling 
house of Mr. Thomas Paine be considered the 



242 MOUNT DESERT 

proper centre of the town of Eden, which said 
committee found by the process above described. 
Fifth, Voted that the hill to the southward of 
Mr. Jeremiah Stevens' and near his house be 
considered the proper centre of the eastern divi- 
sion. 

Sixth, Voted that the western line of Abraham 
Thomas' lot be considered the proper centre of 
the western division. 

Thus gentlemen and fellow townsmen we 
would earnestly recommend to you to accept of 
our report and act in conformity thereinto so 
that the baneful influence of irritated passions 
be known no more among us, but that love, har- 
mony and peace succeed the reign of prejudice, 
passion and party spirit, and consign over to ob- 
livion all envy, strife and contention. 

Thus pray the undersigned, your committee. 
Jeremiah Stevens, Chairman. 
David Hamor, 
Humphrey Stanwood, 
Nathaniel Marcyes, 
Eleazer Higgins, 
Gideon Mayo, 
Mores Higgins, 
Seth Hopkins, 

Committee. 
A true copy. 

Attest, Abraham Thomas, 

Clerk of Said Committee. 



CHURCHES 243 

On March 25, 1822, the town voted to ac- 
cept Northeast Creek Bridge as the centre of the 
western division, and then to " cast lots to see 
if the meeting-house shall stand west of said 
bridge as far as the west line of Eleazer Higgins' 
lot, or east of said bridge the sair'e distance, if 
no convenient spot to erect said house be found 
nearer." The lot was drawn by David Wasgatt, 
Esq., and found to be to the eastward of the 
bridge. The next year the town voted to build a 
meeting-house on the spot designated by the lot, 
and raised $350 to carry the same into effect. 
Meetings were held in this house in the summer 
of 1824. It was called the western meeting- 
house, and meetings were held in it until 1875, 
when the present church at Salsbury's Cove was 
built. 

Meanwhile the Baptists were gaining ground 
in other parts of the island. Captain Davis Was- 
gatt, one of the first settlers on the island, a man 
of strong personality and the representative of 
the new settlement in the General Court of Mas- 
sachusetts, had been one of the charter members 
of the Mount Desert Congregational Church, 
had been a church member for twenty years, 
and had had his children baptized in infancy. 
The Baptist revival raised doubts in his mind as 
to the validity of his own baptism, so he came 
before the church asking to be baptized by im- 
mersion. To the objection. Why then did he 



244 MOUNT DESERT 

not join the Baptist Church? he replied that 
" he could not put up with their close commun- 
ion." The Congregationalists, though not op- 
posed to baptism by immersion, were unwilling 
to concede that their usual method was invalid. 
For two years Captain Wasgatt repeated his de- 
mand, and being still refused, " without any fur- 
ther knowledge or proceeding with the Church, 
on the 27th of September, 1801, said Wasgatt 
went to Eden and was baptized by plunging." 
For this he was debarred from the communion 
till his case could be brought before the church. 
It was then " voted that if Mr. Wasgatt would 
say that if he had young childern, he would give 
them up to God in Baptism, they would accept 
him into full communion, but if not, they should 
not consider him as one of our Church, but they 
would commune with him as one of another 
church." In reply to this Captain Wasgatt de- 
clared if he were to have " ninety and nine 
children more, he would not have one of them 
baptized by sprinkhng." He thenceforth " looked 
upon himself like the blind man that was turned 
out of the synagogue," and on the organization 
of the Baptist Church of Mount Desert in 1816, 
he appears as one of the charter members. 

The Mount Desert Baptist Church was formed 
with fourteen members by a council of churches 
at the " Northen " meeting-house near Pretty 
Marsh, on September 11, 1816. This church lived 



CHURCHES 245 

on friendly terms with the older Congregational 
Church, and the two meeting-houses were used 
in common. Occasionally a member was " visited " 
for deserting one fold for the other without giv- 
ing such previous notice as respect for the home 
church demanded, but in each church a case is 
also on record of a member disciplined for speak- 
ing abusively of the membership of the other. 
Two female members of the Baptist Church were 
taken to task for communing with a Pedo-Baptist 
church when away on a visit. But both churches 
had enough to do in dealing with their own re- 
fractory and non-churchgoing members. Several 
cases of immorality occurred, and the churches 
undertook to settle financial difficulties that in 
these days would be left to the civil courts. 

In 1820 the Baptist Church of Mount Desert 
called as its pastor Elder Lemuel Norton. Born at 
Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, in 1785, he came 
with his parents to Maine, and, like Ebenezer 
Eaton, was brought up under the preaching of 
Rev.^'Peter Powers of Deer Isle. He followed the 
sea for some eleven years, and at the age of twen- 
ty-seven gave himself to the gospel ministry. He 
served the Mount Desert Baptist Church till 1828, 
when, after much disquiet in the church, his con- 
nection was dissolved to the relief of both parties, 
and he thenceforth went about to preach inde- 
pendently the doctrines of the Free Will Bap- 
tists. He organized a church on Gott's Island, 



246 MOUNT DESERT 

which was admitted to the Quarterly Conference 
September 20, 1828, but later became extinct 
through the death and migration of its members. 
Mr. Norton preached on Swan's Island, Placentia, 
Cranberry Islands, at Otter Creek, and Bar Har- 
bor. A church was formed at the last-named 
place, as appears in the records of the Baptist 
Church of Eden, some of whose members sought 
dismission to join this church in 1831. Elder 
Norton also organized a church at Otter Creek, and 
one in his own house at Center. The one at Otter 
Creek had become extinct by 1867. About that 
time a colored evangelist, Rev. William E. Foy, 
organized at Otter Creek a church of twenty-five 
members to be known as a " Christian Church." 
In 1872 came Rev. Andrew Gray, a man so illit- 
erate that he could not write his own name, but 
one of strong personality, whose ministry wrought 
a great improvement at Otter Creek. A new Free 
Baptist Church, organized in 1873, in a short 
time numbered forty-six members. But this 
also became extinct, and in 1902 its few remain- 
ing members were among those who united to 
form the present Congregational Church of Otter 
Creek. The church at Center was Hsted in the 
"Free Will Baptist Register" as late as 1861, but 
has since ceased to exist, leaving no memorial but 
its pewter communion service. About a dozen 
Free Will Baptists were to be found at West 
Tremont between 1855 and 1860, members of a 



CHURCHES 247 

church in Ellsworth, but these have since been 
drawn for the most part into the Methodist 
Church. There remains, therefore, now no organ- 
ized survival of the Free Will Baptist movement. 

The year 1828, in which the Free Will Baptist 
movement began, was marked, also, by the first 
permanent work of the Methodists on the island. 
Rev. David Stimpson and Rev. Rufus Bailey, 
appointed by the Maine Conference to the Penob- 
scot Circuit, visited Mount Desert in that year, 
and on Beech Hill Mr. Bailey organized a class 
of thirteen members, which later became the first 
Methodist church. One of these thirteen was 
the boy Davis Wasgatt Clark, afterwards Bishop 
Clark, grandson of the Davis Wasgatt who lost, 
his standing in the Congregational Church by his 
insistence on baptism by " plunging." A meeting- 
house was built on Beech Hill in 1838, and an 
active religious life centred in this house for ten 
or fifteen years. Most loved and lamented of 
those who labored there was Rev. Mark Tuell, 
who died in 1841. He was a " shouting Metho- 
dist." It is recorded that when he preached in 
the Freeman Schoolhouse at Southwest Harbor, 
he could be heard and understood by persons in 
the house of Captain Mayo on the top of the rise 
on the Clark's Point road, a distance of three hun- 
dred and fifty paces. On his occasional sojourn- 
ings at the house of Mr. Isaac Lurvey, knowing 



248 MOUNT DESERT 

that his hosts were not partial to such extreme 
fervor, he used to resort to the barn to exercise 
his gift in prayer. But on one occasion he found 
the barn preempted by the family watchdog, 
whose voice being even more persuasive, Brother 
Tuell yielded the ground and betook himself to 
the woods. 

The decline of church activities on Beech Hill 
was due in part to a dechne of population, and 
in part to the spread of Universalist doctrines 
among the people. By 1861 the meeting-house 
was in a dilapidated condition. Neighbors were 
stripping it on the sly, as they had need of build- 
ing material. Doors, windows, and clapboards 
were gone. At length some of the pew-holders 
by mutual agreement pulled down what remained 
and divided it among themselves. By 1866 only 
the underpinning was left, and in 1871 this was 
taken to West Eden to serve as foundation for 
the house of Eben M. Hamor. 

From Beech Hill, Methodism spread to all 
parts of the island. There is a record of a camp- 
meeting at Sandy Point on Somes Sound in 1836 
which did much to advance its interests. At one 
time it had a strong organization extending 
throughout the town of Eden, but this subse- 
quently lapsed, and was not directly related to 
the present Methodist Episcopal Church at Bar 
Harbor. In the southern part of the island, be- 
ginning with class meeting organizations at Oak 







BISHOP CLARK 



CHURCHES 249 

Hill, Southwest Harbor, Bass Harbor, Goose Cove, 
Center, Tremont, Long Pond, Cranberry Isle, and 
Sandy Point, the Methodists in time developed 
two principal centres at Southwest Harbor and 
West Tremont, with a meeting-house and par- 
sonage at the former and meeting-houses at 
West Tremont and Gott's Island. They also 
claimed part interest and maintained preaching 
services in the old meeting-house at Manset and 
the original Baptist meeting-house at Center. 

The story of outward and formal organization 
is, of course, only a part of the story of the 
religious life of the community. Of the real 
spiritual experience there is very little record. 
The earlier church records are mostly accounts 
of " visitations " or admonitions. Church mem- 
bers were pledged in covenant to " watch and 
ward " each other. This duty was apparently 
more frequently exercised in the direction of in- 
quisition and rebuke than of sympathy and en- 
couragement. Church " discipline " seemed some- 
times the most important element in the religious 
life of the time. Neighbors practiced an intrusive 
scrutiny upon the habits of their fellow-members 
which could not fail to result in family feuds 
which were often bitter and persistent. The 
settlement was not without people who did not 
shrink from throwing stones at sinners. While 
grave offenses against the moral law were not 



250 MOUNT DESERT 

unknown, the records bear witness to frequent 
admonitions dealt out to church members for 
neglect of attendance upon worship, overcharging 
in trade, profanity, scolding and, later, to the 
entertaining of strange doctrines. The '' larger 
hope " preached by the Universahsts seems to 
have been welcomed in many island homes, and 
while it never reached the stao^e of formal orjran- 
ization, it troubled the discipline of the more 
orthodox churches for years, and many of the 
non-churchgoing families failed to seek church 
membership because of their Universalist beliefs. 
However petty were many of the causes of 
discipline, and however much the peace of the 
community was disturbed by the hostilities en- 
gendered by the austere oversight of the pecul- 
iarly pious and conscientious, it must be recog- 
nized that the churches did greatly help to set 
and maintain a certain moral standard without 
which the hfe of the community might readily 
have become licentious and unscrupulous. The 
churches in their discipline too often disregarded 
the more delicate sensibilities and the just pri- 
vacies of domestic life or religious experience, yet 
they did safeguard the principles of morality ; and 
the mere fact that they upheld, even by the way 
of pubhc rebuke and penalty, certain rules of 
private and public virtue, and demanded conform- 
ity to them, helped to keep the life of the people 
comparatively pure. 



CHURCHES 251 

In this respect, indeed, Mount Desert was pe- 
culiarly fortunate. The preaching of religion 
in New England in the eighteenth century and 
first half of the nineteenth century was usually 
remarkable not only for its arid poverty of 
thought and expression, but also for its detach- 
ment from moral experience. The preachers in 
the cities or older towns were as a rule the learned 
men of the parishes they served. They were 
primarily scholars, and their sermons were apt 
to be pedantic. They were more interested in 
doctrinal details than in public virtue. They 
were more concerned for the orthodoxy of their 
people than for the correction of their vices. But 
in a frontier settlement like Mount Desert the 
ministers were comparatively illiterate. Their 
support was very meagre, and they worked with 
their hands for a livelihood hke all their comrades. 
They were in close touch with their people, sub- 
ject to the same temptations, interested in the 
same problems, cognizant of the sins and infirm- 
ities of their neighbors. They had no books save 
the Bible and perhaps Henry's Commentaries, 
so that their preaching was almost altogether 
practical. Their themes came to them out of the 
familiar Hfe about them and not out of books. 
They were apt to be loud talking, hard hitting 
men, handling without gloves subjects which 
more cultivated ministers might avoid, apt in 
homely illustration and in timely invective, rough 



252 MOUNT DESERT 

in speech, and scornful of the niceties of de- 
meanor. Their theology was harsh and unlovely, 
but in its tough hold on the realities of human 
sin and frailty and its appeal to the common 
emotions it was not ill adapted to the needs of a 
crude civilization. 

Previous to 1853, with the exception of the 
aforementioned Free Will Baptist Church, which 
had but a brief existence, there was no religious 
organization at Bar Harbor and no meeting-house 
nearer than Hull's Cove. By 1853 the need of 
a house of worship was so evident that a move- 
ment was started to build a union meetino-house. 
An organization was formed, March 19, 1853, 
under the name of the Bar Harbor Union Meet- 
ing House Association, and a building committee 
was appointed. On June 30, 1860, a constitu- 
tion was adopted covering among other things 
the following points : that the house be open 
and free for all ministers of the gospel in good 
standing in any religious society beheving in the 
doctrines of Christ, in the necessity of atone- 
ment by the blood of Christ, in repentance, the 
resurrection, and the final judgment. Each de- 
nomination eligible to use the meeting-house was 
entitled to occupy it according to the number of 
shares owned by its members, provided that no 
one denomination occupied more than one Sab- 
bath in succession when the house was wanted 



CHURCHES 253 

by a minister of another denomination, except 
in ease of protracted meetings and funeral occa- 
sions. 

Attempts were made from time to time to 
modify or supersede this constitution, either in 
the direction of broadening the conditions or 
for the purpose of securing the building for the 
exclusive use of one denomination, as when the 
Methodists sought to gain control in 1881. But 
in spite of such attempts, the old constitution 
held its ground and the Union Meeting-House 
remained " union " until 1887. By that time 
several of the denominations had built for them- 
selves, — the Episcopalians in 1878, the Roman 
Catholics in 1881, the Methodists in 1882 ; and 
the Baptists had organized for the same purpose 
in November of the year before and were already 
building. The Unitarians, though they had often 
used the Union Meeting-House, were not within 
the legal qualifications for membership in the 
Association. There remained, therefore, only the 
Congregationalists who maintained a legal and 
practical interest in the Union Meeting-House. 
When, therefore, a meeting of the Association 
was called on the 9th of May, 1887, there was 
no effective opposition to the advertised purpose 
of the meeting, "to change the constitution of 
the said Union Meeting House Association so as 
to correspond to the articles of agreement of 
a regular Congregational Church." The pews 



254 MOUNT DESERT 

belongIn£^ to members of other denominations 
were purchased, and a Constitution of the Bar 
Harbor Congregational Society was adopted in 
place of the old constitution of the Association, 
May 23, 1887, and the Association thus became 
the parish of the Bar Harbor Congregational 
Church. This church had been formed May 
30, 1883, with thirteen members. In 1884 a 
parsonage was bought, and in 1889 the present 
stone meeting-house was built. The ladies of the 
Sewing Society built the extension on the north 
side for a kitchen. The pipe organ, mainly the 
gift of Mrs. Thomas Hubbard of New York, was 
installed August 3, 1903, and the cabinet organ 
thus displaced was given to the new church at 
Otter Creek. 

Of the several bodies that for a time shared 
the use of the Union Meeting-House, the Episco- 
palians were the first to organize separately and 
build a house of worship. The movement origi- 
nated with the summer residents, but was intended 
for the benefit of the community throughout 
the year. The beginning of this enterprise was 
under the Episcopal supervision of the Rt. Rev. 
Henry A. Neely, who began his work as Bishop 
of Maine in 1867, and on the 20th of July of the 
same year made his first visit to Mount Desert. 
His coming had to do more immediately with the 
history of the Church of Our Father at Hull's 
Cove, as will be told later, but on his way thither 



CHURCHES 255 

he stopped at Bar Harbor aud conducted services. 
Under bis leadership, supported actively by Mr. 
and Mrs. Gouverneur Morris Ogden, money was 
raised to build in 1878 a small stone chapel ca- 
pable of seating 325 people. The rapid growth of 
the summer population soon called for enlarge- 
ment, and in 1886 the present nave and chancel 
were built, the former structure now constituting 
a transept, and altogether furnishing 800 sittings. 
Gifts of great value followed rapidly on this en- 
largement. Among these were the altar of Ital- 
ian marble given by Mrs. Ogden and her children 
in memory of Mr. Ogden, whose body lies buried 
under the centre of the nave. The large Sunday- 
school room was added by Mrs. William H. 
Vanderbilt of New York, and the rectory is the 
gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Carroll Jackson of 
New York. 

The history of St. Savior's is largely the his- 
tory of its first rector. Rev. Christopher Starr 
Lefifingwell. He was well fitted by personal kind- 
liness of heart and public spirit, combined with a 
gracious dignity of manner and ripe scholarship, 
to commend to the people of the island the work 
of a denomination with which as yet they had 
had but little acquaintance. Mr. Leffingwell was 
born in Ellsworth, Ohio, December 16, 1827, 
was graduated from Trinity College, Hartford, 
1854, and Berkeley Divinity School, in 1856. 
He then held pastorates at Fairfield, Conn., Pal- 



256 MOUNT DESERT 

myra and Canaiidaigua, N. Y., and Gardiner, Me., 
whence he came to Bar Harbor in 1879, where 
he served St. Savior's for twenty years, and was 
pastor emeritus for three years more, till his death 
in Washington, April 11, 1902. 

In 1865 the old meeting-house at Hull's Cove, 
the first one built in Eden, was pulled down. 
Two years before. Captain Jonathan Ignatius 
Stevens, born at Bar Harbor in 1812 but brought 
up in Hull's Cove, had given the village a school- 
house with the provision that it could be used 
for religious services, and also that whenever a 
minister, especially one of the Episcopal order, 
could be obtained, he should have the use of the 
house. It was at his request that Bishop Neely 
made his first visit to the island to preach in this 
schoolhouse. Bad weather delayed the bishop, 
and at the time of his visit Captain Stevens had 
been called unexpectedly to Portland, where the 
bishop on his return found him taken suddenly 
with a fatal illness. Before his deatli, he per- 
suaded the bishop to promise that whenever he 
could, he would send a clergyman to hold ser- 
vices at Hull's Cove ; and it was in fulfillment of 
this pledge that Mr. Leffingwell, through all the 
years of his ministry at Bar Harbor, conducted 
services regularly at Hull's Cove also. To ac- 
commodate a growing work, the present beauti- 
ful " Church of Our Father " was built in 1891, 
the gift of Miss Mary Rutherford Prime of New 



CHURCHES 257 

York and her cousin, Miss Cornelia Prime of 
Huntington, N. Y., in memory of their fa- 
thers, two brothers, Rufus and Frederic Prime. 
The building is of native granite, rural gothic 
in style, with Norman porch, open belfry, and a 
small inclosed baptistry. A beautiful gothic well 
stands by the path leading in from the highway. 
Many gifts complete the interior furnishing, 
among them the pipe organ given by the con- 
gregation in 1902 in memory of Mr. Leffingwell. 
The second organization to secure for itself a 
separate meeting-house at Bar Harbor was the 
Catholic Church of St. Silvia. It is not prob- 
able that any Catholic services were held on the 
island from the time of the destruction of the 
Jesuit colony in 1613 till the number of Catho- 
lics among those who came in the summer con- 
stituted a considerable body. The plan of build- 
ing a Catholic church at Bar Harbor originated 
with Mr. DeGrasse Fox, who in 1879 offered a 
suitable lot on Kebo Street. The offer of Mr. 
Fox met with hearty support from summer resi- 
dents, but stiU more generous in proportion to 
their means were the gifts of the Indians and 
the working people. A church with a seating 
capacity of 250 was opened for service in 1881, 
and was consecrated in August, 1882, by Rt. 
Rev. J. A. Healy, Bishop of Portland. A year or 
two later, in the pastorate of Father Thomas F. 
Butler, the building was enlarged to double its 



258 MOUNT DESERT 

former capacity, pews were introduced, and a 
vestry built for use in winter. The wooden cru- 
cifix and the six candlesticks that stand on its 
altar were carved expressly for St. Silvia by Jo- 
seph Mayer of Ober-Ammergau, the well-known 
representative of the Saviour in the Passion Play. 
Father Butler, who as priest at Ellsworth had 
charge of the mission of St. Silvia for the first 
thirteen years, was born in Ireland, but coming 
early to this country, was educated in the public 
schools of Boston and at Holy Cross College. 
He studied theology in the seminary of St. Sul- 
pice in Paris, where he was ordained to the 
priesthood by the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, 
and after a short term as assistant priest in 
Portland, Me., was appointed to the charge of 
Ellsworth and its missions. Under Father But- 
ler's successor. Rev. James D. O'Brien, missions 
have been established also at Northeast Harbor 
and Grindstone Neck. At Northeast Harbor ser- 
vices were held occasionally in the Union Church 
till 1895, when a Catholic church was built with 
a seating capacity of 170, which in 1901 was en- 
larged to accommodate a congregation of about 
five hundred. Services are held here only during 
the summer season, there being but one Catholic 
family among the permanent residents. 

The same Rufus Bailey who organized the 
Methodist class on Beech Hill preached also at 
Bar Harbor, but no formal organization was 



CHUECHES 259 

made there till 1881, when Rev. James H. 
Mooers formed a class of thirteen members, 
holding services in the Union Meeting-House. 
It appears that an effort was made at this time 
to secure this meeting-house for the exclusive 
use of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for in 
the records of the Bar Harbor Union Meeting 
House Association, now continued as the records 
of the Bar Harbor Congregational Society, under 
date of June 7, 1881, we find it " voted that the 
stockholders of the Union Meeting House Asso- 
ciation transfer the property of the said associa- 
tion to the Methodist Episcopal Church, twelve 
in favor and five against." Then, "voted that 
the trustees of the Association be authorized and 
instructed to sign in behalf of the Association a 
quitclaim deed in favor of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, twelve in favor and none against." 
This action proved, however, to have no legal 
authority and the majority proceeded to secure 
an independent location. A lot on School Street 
was purchased for $3000, and a meeting-house 
was dedicated August 12, 1883. The church 
was incorporated in March, 1886. In 1888 the 
house, being too small, was removed and the 
present brick structure was built at a cost of 
$18,000. The church is named for Bishop Davis 
Wasgatt Clark.^ 

1 Davis Wasgatt Clark was born on Beech Hill, February 12, 
1812, a son of John and Sarah Wasgatt Clark. From his ma- 



260 MOUNT DESERT 

The Baptists withdrew from the Uuion Meet- 
ing-House at Bar Harbor in 1886, and under the 
lead of Rev. A. J. Palmer organized a church 

ternal grandfather, Davis Wasgatt, the boy inherited strength 
of character and persistence in whatever he undertook. Faithful 
in all the work of the farm, he spent his evenings in study of 
whatever books he could borrow. He worked his own way in 
part through the Maine Wesleyan Seminary at Kent's Hill, 
while his mother and sisters kept him supplied with clothing and 
books; and his father, equally in sympathy with his ambition for 
an education, mortgaged the farm to meet his college expenses. 
His first care on graduating from college and earning a salary was 
to pay off the mortgage, and the gratitude he felt for the aid he 
had received was often manifested in his helping other needy 
and ambitious youth, particularly in his encouragement of the 
children of Rev. Rufus Bailey under whom, at the age of sixteen, 
he had joined the Methodist Church. 

Clark was graduated from Wesleyan University in 1836 and 
accepted a call to the principalship of Amenia Seminary, where 
he served from 1837 to 1843. He then joined the New York 
Conference, and filled pastorates successively at Winsted and 
Salisbury, Conn. ; Sullivan Street and Vestry Street, New York 
city; and Cannon Street, Poughkeepsie ; after which, he was 
called to the editorship of the Ladies' Repository. This position 
he filled from 1856 to 1864, when he was elected a bishop. In 
this office he traveled extensively and organized several confer- 
ences. The extra work thrown upon him by the death of his 
colleagues, Bishops Thompson and Kingsley, overtaxed his 
strength. While conducting the New York Conference in the 
spring of 1871, he suffered from a serious attack of heart failure, 
from which he recovered only sufficiently to be removed to his 
home in Cincinnati, where he died on the 23d of May. Bishop 
Clark's published works included a Mental Philosophy, Elements 
of Algebra, Life and Times of Bishop Elijah Hedding, and Man 
all Immortal. At the time of his death he was president of the 
Freed man's Aid Society, of the Board of Trustees of the Wes- 
leyan Female College of Cincinnati, and of the Board of Trustees 
of Ohio Wesleyan University. See D. Curry's Life Story of Bishop 
Clark, 1874. 



CHURCHES 261 

of nine members, bought a lot on Ledgelawn 
Avenue, and in 1887 built the present meeting- 
house. Finally the Unitarians, excluded from the 
Union Meeting-House, organized their own ser- 
vices. By a deed dated December 3, 1888, Miss 
Mary Shannon of Newton, Mass., gave a lot on 
Ledgelawn Avenue to the American Unitarian 
Association, and the beautiful church built on it 
was first occupied in June, 1889. It is used chiefly 
for summer services, though a local society was 
organized in 1894, and winter services, led by 
ministers from Ellsworth, are occasionally held. 

The people of the Cranberry Isles were for 
many years among the faithful attendants on the 
services in the old " Sutheren " meeting-house 
built on the Manset side of Southwest Harbor 
by vote of the town of Mount Desert in 1799. 
As the hour for service drew near on Sunday 
mornings, boat-loads of them would be seen 
coming from all the islands ; and even when the 
services were to be held in its twin, the " Nor- 
then " meeting-house near Pretty Marsh, or 
later, in the Methodist meeting-house on Beech 
Hill, many would come from the islands, and 
landing at the most convenient beach, make 
their way to the appointed place on foot. Going 
to meeting was done on a heroic scale in those 
days, for not only the men, but the women and 
little children took these long rows and walks. 



262 MOUNT DESERT 

Occasionally a minister crossed to hold meet- 
ings on one of the islands, as when Elder Norton 
preached on Great Cranberry the doctrine of the 
Free Will Baptists. Later the Methodist preach- 
ers included the islands in their circuits until 
about 1889, when having failed to get a major 
interest in the meeting-house property on Great 
Cranberry, and wishing to devote their strength 
to the building of their new house at Southwest 
Harbor, they withdrew from this field. 

In 1860 a union sewing-circle of thirty-eight 
members was formed among the women on Great 
Cranberry to raise money to build a union meet- 
ing-house. The house is the one still standing 
there, and it has had a somewhat contentious 
history. Within a year of its formation there 
was a falling-out in the sewing-circle on the dis- 
covery that all its offices were held in one fam- 
ily. The rift widened, and soon followed the 
line of cleavage between Republicans and Demo- 
crats, or " North " and " South." A minority of 
sixteen seceded in May, 1862, and formed a rival 
circle, which two years later disbanded, but not 
till the interesting spectacle had been presented 
of two church fairs held on the fourth of July, 
1864, one by the Republican sisters and one 
by the Democratic, but each for the benefit of 
a " union " meeting-house. The sewing-circle 
raised about $1200, and with this in hand Squire 
Preble, his son William H. Preble, and Enoch 




UNITARIAN CHURCH, BAR HARBOR 




CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, SEAL HARBOR 



CHURCHES 263 

Stanley undertook, as a building committee, to 
complete the house at their own charges. The 
church was dedicated on September 11, 1866, 
and occasional services were held in it for ten 
years. 

On the morning of January 10, 1878, the 
steeple was blown down, taking with it most of 
the roof, which had just been newly shingled. 
For two weeks the house was filled with snow, 
water, and ice till a new roof could be put on. 
In 1883 Squire Preble, as chairman of the com- 
mittee and largest owner of pews, decided to 
close the house till the other owners should pay 
their assessments and people should come for- 
ward to share the expense of repairs. In 1886 
the Methodist Conference, through Rev. Oliver 
H. Fernald, offered to purchase and repair one 
half the property if the people would repair the 
other half and put the entire property in the 
control of the Conference. But the committee 
would not consent to its being other than a 
union church, and the Conference accordingly 
withdrew. 

In 1893 the condition of affairs on the islands 
was brought to the attention of the Maine Mis- 
sionary Society (Congregational), whose secre- 
tary. Rev. Charles Whittier, visited the islands. 
In the spring of 1894 the Society sent Rev. 
Charles E. Harwood, who at his death three 
years later left a united people deeply mourning 



264 MOUNT DESERT 

their loss. Before his death Mr. Harwood had, 
with financial help from Mr. and Mrs. Andrew 
C. Wheelwright of Boston, and other summer 
visitors, helped to solve the vexed problem of 
property rights in the union meeting-house. 
The property is now held by a Board of Trustees 
representing both permanent and summer resi- 
dents, and is kept in good order. 

In the fall of 1897, Rev. Charles N. Davie 
took up the work, and on June 25, 1899, the 
Congregational Church of Cranberry Isles was 
organized at the union meeting-house. In 1900 
the Islesford Congregational Society was organ- 
ized to build and maintain a house of worship 
on Little Cranberry. Their meeting-house was 
opened for worship the following year. The sum- 
mer fairs by which the women on both islands 
raise a large part of the funds for church main- 
tenance are annual events of no little interest 
in the social life of the neighboring summer 
resorts. 

We return now to take up the history of the 
older churches. The original Mount Desert Con- 
gregational Church found in 1828 that Father 
Ebenezer Eaton was growing old, and so in 1831 
Rev. George Brown was secured as associate pas- 
tor at a salary in cash and produce of one hun- 
dred and thirty-eight dollars for preaching forty- 
eight Sabbaths and attending to other pastoral 



CHURCHES 265 

duties. Mr. Brown proved unsatisfactory even 
at this salary, and in 1834 Rev. Micah W. 
Strickland ^ was called ; and here for the first 
time, we read of a " society," or parish, as acting 
in conjunction with the church. In this year, 
traces of outside influences appear in a vote to 
confer with other churches for the formation of 
a town Bible Society, and in a standing regula- 
tion " that we receive none into our communion 
who will not pledge themselves to abstain en- 
tirely from the use of ardent spirits as a drink." 
This was the year in which the Maine Temper- 
ance Society was formed. Mr. Strickland was a 
minister of a practical capacity. With his own 
hands he quarried stone on Somes Sound, boated 
it down into Norwood's Cove, dragged it up the 
hill, and laid the foundations of his house, the 
one now owned by Mr. 0. W. Cousins. 

1 Micah W. Strickland was a graduate of the Bangor Theo- 
logical Seminary in 1834. He preached acceptably at Amherst, 
Aurora, Trenton, and Southwest Harbor. He then moved west- 
ward, and died at Prentissvale, Pa., February 13, 1884. Mr. 
Strickland married Mary Ann Kitteridge, daughter of Dr. Ken- 
dall Kitteridge of Somesville. 

Dr. Kitteridge was the son of Nehemiah Kitteridge of Biller- 
ica, Mass., and was born October 19, 1773. He married Sarah 
Whiting of Hollis, N. H., and they came to Mount Desert in 
1799. Ten children were born to them, so that their descendants 
are numerous on the island. For nearly sixty years Dr. Kitte- 
ridge was the only physician on Mount Desert. He had an enor- 
mous practice which he carried on unweariedly. There were no 
good carriage roads on the island till about 1827, so that he was 
accustomed to travel either by water or on horseback. 



266 MOUNT DESERT 

For a quarter of a century after the close of 
Mr. Strickland's pastorate in 1841, the records 
of the First Church are scanty. It was a period 
of dej^ression in all the churches. Early in this 
period, the village of Somesville, then known as 
" Between the Hills " or " Among the Hills," 
began to take the place of Southwest Harbor as 
the centre of church life. In 1840 the Congre- 
gational Religious Society of Mount Desert was 
organized there. The by-laws provided for sepa- 
rate lists of those who were willing to be taxed and 
those who chose to subscribe, and " assessors " 
and " collectors " were appointed. Two years 
later it was voted to dispense with assessors, 
which probably indicates the end of raising money 
by taxation, and collectors were appointed for 
Sandy Point, Norwood's Cove, Cranberry Isles, 
Bass Harbor, Pretty Marsh, Between the Hills, 
and Beech Hill, which indicates the extent of 
the parish at that time. The present Somesville 
meeting-house was built in 1852. It was the 
first one on the island to have a bell, which was 
bought for it by the Ladies' Sewing Circle at 
a cost of $300, and was installed on the fourth 
of July, 1858. The Congregational Church of 
Somesville was organized December 21, 1876, 
with ten members drawn mainly from the parent 
church of the island. In 1846 the township of 
Tremont had been set off from Mount Desert, 
and the Mount Desert Congregational Church, 



CHURCHES 267 

being now limited in its responsibility to South- 
west and Bass Harbors, but unwilling to lose the 
historical associations of its former name as the 
first church on the island, added to its name in 
1888 the words " of Tremont " to indicate its 
proper field. 

In 1885 the union meeting-house at South- 
west Harbor was built. Its location, somewhat 
out of the centre of population but convenient 
to the summer hotels, was determined by a gift 
of land for the purpose by Deacon Henry H. 
Clark of the Baptist Church. It was recognized 
that the Congregationalists would be the larger 
element in the patronage of the house, though 
the Methodists also had some part in it, and in 
consideration of the gift of land it was agreed 
that Deacon Clark should retain in his own name 
an undivided third of the land and a third of 
the pews, and that the Baptists should be en- 
titled to every third Sunday. The remaining 
pews were sold at auction and bought mainly by 
Congregationalists. In 1899 Rev. Charles P. 
Kittredge of the Baptist Church at Manset de- 
clining to use his privilege of every third Sunday 
in this union meeting-house, the house became 
exclusively Congregational in usage, though in 
its legal aspects it is still union. The house was 
dedicated September 9, 1885. On August 1, 
1888, the church was incorporated, having in 
view the building of a meeting-house at Bass 



268 MOUNT DESERT 

Harbor, and this house was first occupied in 
November, 1889, and dedicated September 11, 
1890. 

When in 1828 the Mount Desert Baptist 
Church dismissed Elder Norton from its pasto- 
rate on charges of doctrinal unsoundness and 
of attempting to build up a Free Will Baptist 
church within its own membership, an unhappy 
controversy developed which greatly weakened 
the spiritual life of the church; but in 1832 a 
visit from Elder Elisha Bedell resulted in a quick- 
ening that added ninety-two members by letter 
and on confession within the next year and a half. 
In 1832 Rev. Calvin L. Cary began a wise and 
helpful pastorate of eleven years. The present 
meeting-house at Center was built by this church 
in 1837 as a distinctively Baptist house of wor- 
ship, the church rejoicing that now it had one 
meeting-house all its own and owned a fourth 
interest in another. This exclusive ownership, 
however, failed to insure the peace of the church. 
Eight years after the house was built, Captain 
Jonathan Tinker asked the church to take up 
his case against Deacon Simeon Milliken. Cap- 
tain Tinker had built the house on an agreement, 
as he claimed, that Deacon Milliken would pay 
for a certain j^art of it, which the deacon had 
refused to do. The case dragged on for four 
years, during which the church tried to bring 
the two men to terms, first through a committee. 



CHURCHES 269 

then acting as a committee of the whole, then 
with the assistance of neighboring churches. 
Finally it excluded both men from its fellowship, 
for the case had become a church scandal, and 
patience had ceased to be a virtue. Other ex- 
clusions and visitations for lack of interest and 
for bad conduct were by this time occurring in 
rapid succession, till the church had almost lost 
its organization, and services were held very in- 
frequently. 

In 1853 the faithful few were cheered by the 
return of Elder Gary to give them a part of his 
time. Twelve men and eight women renewed 
covenant, followed shortly by forty others, being 
all that remained of a church of which Elder Cary 
could say eight years before : " Few churches 
have been more harmonious among themselves 
than this, and none more prompt in discipline. 
It has one hundred and thirty-one members 
who are engaged in various works of benevo- 
lence." 

For many years now the church could com- 
mand only occasional preaching and pastorates 
of short duration by financial aid of the Maine 
Baptist Missionary Convention. In 1893 the 
name was changed to Tremont Baptist Church, 
and in 1895 it was incorporated. Long before 
this, the strength of the church had gravitated 
southward to Seal Cove, where the schoolhouse 
became their principal meeting-place, while the 



270 MOUNT DESERT 

old church fell into bad repair. In the gale of 
January 10, 1878, which handled the Cranberry 
Island steeple so roughly, the belfry of this 
church also was wrenched off and carried half- 
way to the shore before it struck the ground. 
It was never replaced, but from time to time the 
Methodists of the neighborhood have repaired 
the building, and for many years have been main- 
taining services in it under the care of the pastors 
at West Tremont, so that now, in place of the 
old controversy as to how much Deacon MilH- 
ken ought to pay Captain Tinker on the original 
cost, we have a milder disputation as to whether 
Baptists or Methodists have the better claim on 
it, the former for building, the latter for salvage. 
It seems probably that but for the Methodists 
this old meeting-house would long ago have met 
the same fate as the one on Beech Hill, or its 
nearer neighbor, the Congregational meeting- 
house at Pretty Marsh. This latter was a house 
built by one George Freeman at the same time 
as the Baptist house at Center, and was located 
on the main road from Somesville to Center, a 
few rods south of the Pretty Marsh junction. 
But while the Baptist house, having a slight ad- 
vantage of accessibility, survived by occasional 
repairs, this Freeman meeting-house fell into 
decay, and some time after 1866 was tumbled 
down by a gale of wind. 

Again the centre of Baptist influence shifted. 



CHURCHES 271 

this time eastward to Manset, where in 1894 the 
members petitioned for leave to withdraw and 
form a separate church. This was refused at first, 
but a partial concession was made in the purchase 
the following year of the William King house 
for a parsonage, thus locating the minister at 
Manset rather than Seal Cove, and in 1897 the 
demand of the eastern members for a separate 
organization was granted. The Baptist Chm-ch of 
Manset was formed on the 9th of December with 
twenty-six members, and the following year the 
parsonage was transferred to it. The church uses 
the old white meeting-house ; and the Methodists 
also hold services there on Sunday afternoons. 

The good work done by Elder Enoch Hunting 
in Eden continued to bear fruit after his resigna- 
tion in 1832, and " protracted meetings " during 
the fall and winter added sixty-nine members to 
the church. Years of alternate growth and de- 
cline followed, with frequent changes in the 
pastorate and considerable periods when there 
was no preaching. Elder Calvin L. Cary of the 
Mount Desert Church appears here also in help- 
ful ser\ices from time to time. In the spring of 
1860 the church secured a pastor by advertising 
its needs in " Zion's Advocate." The old meeting- 
house at Hull's Cove having been pulled down in 
1865, a new one was built at Salsbury's Cove, and 
in 1902 a parsonage was built. 

The Methodist Church at Southwest Harbor 



272 MOUNT DESERT 

was organized about 1865, and built its meeting- 
house in 1889 and its parsonage in 1895. Metho- 
dist interests on the west side of the island were 
for many years under the care of pastors living 
at Southwest Harbor, but in 1888 West Tremont 
became a separate charge. In 1892 a hall on the 
site now occupied by the meeting-house was 
bought for religious purposes, and the same year 
a church was organized. By 1900 the old hall 
was getting out of repair, and it had associations 
unfavorable to religious influences. It was ac- 
cordingly pulled down and the present meeting- 
house built. 

The coming of the summer visitors to the island 
and the rapid development of large summer com- 
munities at Bar Harbor, Northeast Harbor, Seal 
Harbor, and other resorts, led to the building of 
summer chapels which have in several instances 
prompted the organization of new churches. We 
have seen how five or six churches grew out of 
the original white union meeting-house at Bar 
Harbor. At Northeast Harbor and Seal Harbor 
when the summer visitors began to come there 
were no church organizations at all. The few 
families Hving along the shore would occasionally 
meet in the schoolhouses at Northeast Harbor, 
Long Pond, and Otter Creek for services led by 
ministers from Southwest Harbor or Somesville. 

In the summer of 1881 the Rt. Rev. Wilham 



CHURCHES 273 

Croswell Doane, D. D., began to hold Episcopal 
services in the hall of his newly built summer 
cottage at Northeast Harbor. By the interest 
there shown, he felt warranted in proposing on 
the last Sunday of August that an effort be made 
to build a chapel. The people responded gener- 
ously, and a site was given by Stephen Smallidge 
and Margaret Harrison Doane. The immediate 
undertaking of the work was made possible by a 
bequest from Mrs. Edward N. Perkins of Pine 
Bank, near Boston, who died January 28, 1882, 
and by gifts from Mr. Perkins, so that the Chapel 
of St. Mary's by the Sea was opened for worship 
on July 23, 1882, and consecrated by Bishop 
Doane on August 23 of the same year. A south 
aisle and west porch were added in 1885, and a 
north aisle and transept in 1887. In 1886 a 
rectory was built on land given by Daniel Kim- 
ball, and in 1891 the chapel was lengthened. 

By 1899 the accommodations had become too 
small for the summer congregations, and besides, 
the original wooden building was uncomfortable 
for services in winter. It was accordingly deter- 
mined to build in stone and on a larger scale. 
Bishop Doane gave the needed land, and work 
was begun with the intention of building first 
a chancel, and waiting till subscriptions should 
warrant before building the nave and transept. 
This chancel with vestry and organ loft, a memo- 
rial to those who had worshiped here in earlier 



274 MOUNT DESERT 

years, was completed the following year at a cost 
of some $7000. By some misunderstanding the 
chancel was placed about eight feet out of its 
proper relation to the original chapel, resulting 
in a situation so awkward in appearance that 
the people were easily moved by the bishop's ap- 
peal to proceed at once with the building of the 
stone nave. The sum of $16,000 was quickly 
pledged for this purpose, and the work was 
about to begin, when the feeling became gen- 
eral that something larger and more beautiful 
should be attempted ; and Bishop Doane, trusting 
to the friends of the movement to support him, 
secured other plans and borrowed enough money 
to complete both the nave and the transepts at 
an additional expense of $15,000. The debt was 
soon canceled by generous subscriptions, and the 
new church was consecrated in the summer of 
1902. 

The new church contains all the memorials 
formerly in the old and many more. The porch 
is a memorial to Mr. and Mrs. Edward N. Per- 
kins. The arches supporting the lantern tower 
are in memory of Miss Emma Esther Kimball. 
The pipe organ was given by St. Savior's Church 
at Bar Harbor. The Ionic cross over the stone 
altar was the gravestone of Margaret Harrison 
Doane, who rests under the chancel floor, and 
above this is the " lighthouse " window, which 
is a memorial to Mrs. Edward N. Perkins. 



CHURCHES 275 

Nine missionaries have served St. Mary's since 
1883. A fair held in Kimball Grove in August, 
1896, by the St. Mary's Benevolent and Building 
Society, netted ^1080, and a parish house was 
built and opened for the Christmas celebration 
of that year. In 1897 the upper story was fur- 
nished for a lodge room. 

In May, 1886, Bishop Neely held a meeting 
in the schoolhouse at Seal Harbor. Services 
were then continued through the summer by 
Rev. Wyllys Rede, and in November the bishop 
organized a mission under the name of St. Jude, 
to be under the care of the missionary at North- 
east Harbor. A chapel was built which was 
opened for services on July 24, 1887, and conse- 
crated on August 29, 1889. In November, 1900, 
the mission was made independent of North- 
east Harbor under the care of Rev. Miles Hem- 
enway. 

Episcopal services were held in the district 
schoolhouse on the Brown Mountain Road sev- 
eral summer seasons by Rev. CorneHus B. Smith, 
D. D., rector emeritus of St. James, New York, a 
summer resident of Northeast Harbor. A lot in 
a beautiful grove overlooking Somes Sound was 
the gift of Mr. Giles Sargent. Mr. C. D. Joy, 
the contractor for the new St. Mary's, gave the 
use of his tools and his labor of superintendence 
free of charge ; $500 were contributed in cash, 
labor, and material by other permanent residents. 



276 MOUNT DESERT 

and ^1200 by summer visitors, and the little 
Chapel of St. James was built in 1903. 

Northeast Harbor and Seal Harbor continued 
to grow rapidly both in permaiient and summer 
residents. About 1882, a number of summer 
residents at Northeast Harbor, mostly Unitarians 
and Congregationalists, began holding union ser- 
vices in the schoolhouse. At a meeting held 
September 25, 1886, it was proposed to build a 
free union church. A building lot was given by 
S. N. Gilpatrick, and a subscription paper, circu- 
lated first among permanent residents and then 
among summer visitors and their friends, secured 
pledges sufficient to build a handsome stone 
chapel. The house was dedicated July 17, 1889. 
Since then services have been held throughout 
each summer season by visiting ministers of all 
denominations, while the Baptist church has the 
use of the building for the remainder of the year. 

Northeast Harbor had at times been included 
in the field of the pastors of the Baptist church 
of Tremont, but after the union church became 
available the Baptists organized a church of 
twelve members under the lead of Eev. A. F. 
Palmer, April 8, 1893. On November 16 of the 
same year a parish was incorporated in connec- 
tion with the church and a parsonage was built. 

In 1887, Rev. LeBaron W. Fowler, rector of 







»-; . ■■ ^ riW^m 


^^■|^:<j,-^'-J . -■>.s,^^- 


".::.:'.v-''irt^Hy 


^^^Efe^?***' '•■' i£^\. 4* 4' H -^^ik 


..■y?:;?*^-^ ' ....,>JiSSmthL^ii^ 


wmm^"-. ■'^^iiMo^.^iiii^ 



UNION CHURCH, NORTHEAST HARBOR 




EPISCOPAL CHURCH, NORTHEAST HARBOR 



CHURCHES 277 

St. Mary's, took a religious census of permanent 
residents of Seal Harbor that showed a popu- 
lation of one hundred and eighteen, of whom 
eighty-two were adults. Of these only sixteen 
were members of any church, eight of them 
being Baptists, six Methodists, one Congrega- 
tionalist, and one of the Church of England. 
Congregational work was begun here by Rev. 
Charles Whittier of the Maine Missionary So- 
ciety, who preached for two Sundays in the 
schoolhouse. A student preacher was then en- 
gaged for the summer, who continued in the 
work till January, when Rev. Alexander P. Mc- 
Donald was called to take charge. A Congrega- 
tional parish was incorporated, and on June 6, 
1901, a church of twelve members was formed at 
the Sea Side Inn. A meeting-house was then 
built at a cost of $6500 for land, building, and 
furnishing, and on August 31, 1902, the house 
was dedicated. 

Mention has been made elsewhere of the Free 
Will Baptist and other movements at Otter Creek, 
but of these there remained no active organiza- 
tion when, in June of 1901, Rev. Mr. McDonald 
of Seal Harbor was invited by the Christian En- 
deavor Society to preach in the schoolhouse. 
The plan of this schoolhouse had been brought 
from Boston by the Hon. Alpheus Hardy, one of 
the first of the visitors to build a cottage at Bar 
Harbor. Mr. McDonald found the people talk- 



278 MOUNT DESERT 

ing of building a meeting-house, though as yet 
there was no organization competent to take 
charge o£ such an enteqjrise with any promise 
of stabihty. Accordingly the Ladies' Aid Society 
was taken as a basis, and its membership being 
thrown open to all who were interested in the 
project, both men and women, it was incorpo- 
ated as the Aid Society of Otter Creek. A sub- 
scription paper was circulated, a lot was pur* 
chased, and work on the house was begun. At a 
public meeting and after a full and free discus- 
sion, it was voted unanimously to seek fellowship 
with the Congregational denomination. The cor- 
nerstone of the meeting-house was laid on July 
15, and on the same day, a Congregational 
Church of twelve members was organized. The 
meeting-house was opened for service for the 
first time on December 17, 1903, and was dedi- 
cated in the summer of 1904. 

The Young People's Society of Christian En- 
deavor made its first appearance on the island in 
the Congregational Church at Bar Harbor in 
1887. The movement spread rapidly through 
the island. Epworth Leagues were formed at 
the same time in the Methodist churches, till at 
this time there are fifteen local Young People's 
societies on the island organized in the follow- 
ing order, denominations being indicated by 
their initials : Bar Harbor (C), 1887 ; Southwest 
Harbor (C), 1888; Bar Harbor (M), 1893; Sals- 



CHUKCHES 279 

bury's Cove (B), 1894; Bar Harbor (B), Somes- 
ville (C), Northeast Harbor (B), 1895 ; Islesford 
(C), 1897; Center (M), Great Cranberry (C), 
Otter Creek (C), 1898; Manset (B), Seal Harbor 
(C), 1901 ; Seal Cove (B), 1902 ; West Tremont 
(M), 1903. The Mount Desert Local Union of 
Christian Endeavor Societies and Epworth 
Leagues was organized at Somesville in 1896. 
The meetings of the Union are held three times 
a year from place to place, and are very helpful 
to the spiritual life of the island and to the con- 
stituent societies. The one held at Somesville, 
January 30, 1904, was attended by over three 
hundred people. 

An event of great interest to the religious de- 
velopment of the island was the opening of the 
Young Men's Christian Association at Bar Har- 
bor, June 1, 1900. Previous to this, there had 
been no place of resort in Bar Harbor where 
young men in large numbers could spend their 
evenings in social, literary, and intellectual pur- 
suits. The lines of work developed have been 
those usually found in well-equipped Young 
Men's Christian Associations. A large gymna- 
sium with baths, well-appointed game and read- 
ing rooms, public receptions, entertainments and 
lectures, literary societies in both senior and 
junior departments, an employment bureau and 
a boarding-house directory, a ladies' auxiliary to 
assist at receptions and socials, Bible classes and 



280 MOUNT DESERT 

Sunday afternoon talks, these all provide for the 
development of the young men on every side of 
their nature. 

The religious life of the four towns is thus 
adequately cared for. A century of local church 
history discloses steady improvement in material 
equipment, in quality of pastoral service and in 
spiritual vitality. 



VIII 
SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS 



Happy he whom neither wealth nor fashion, 
Nor the march of the encroaching city, 

Drives an exile 
From the hearth of his ancestral homestead. 

We may build more splendid habitations, 

Fill our rooms with paintings and with sculptures, 

But we cannot 
Buy with gold the old associations. 

Longfellow. 



New friendships may bind us. 

New loves lay their claim, 
New homes may enshrine us. 
They 're never the same ! 
But the home we first knew on this beautiful earth, 
The friends of our childhood, the place of our birth. 
In the heart's inner chamber sung always will be, 
As the shell ever sings of its home in the sea ! 

Frances Dana Gage. 



The riches of the Commonwealth 

Are free, strong minds and hearts of health. 



Whittier. 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS 

The social conditions of a community can best 
be illustrated by certain typical careers. 

In the summer of 1808, John Clement came 
to Little Cranberry to make barrels for Captain 
Hadlock, who had a large fish business. Clement 
was a cooper of Scotch descent who, in 1795, 
had moved with his wife, Deborah Burns, from 
Haverhill, Mass., to the Penobscot, living first 
at Oldtown and later at Bucksport. From Little 
Cranberry he could see opposite on the main 
island of Mount Desert a sheltered cove with a 
little stream running down into it and with 
a good sand beach at the head. When he went 
back to Bucksport he told his wife about it and 
it was agreed to move thither. Clement spent 
the winter building a large open boat and in the 
spring loaded it with his family and household 
goods, and without mishap reached Seal Harbor 
in June, 1809, and landed on the beach on the 
western side. Going into the woods he cut two 
crotched stakes, drove them into the ground, laid 
a ridgepole on them, and then with spruce bark 
made a V-shaped shelter in which the family spent 
the summer while the log house was building. 

For his house Clement chose a site at the other 



284 MOUNT DESERT 

end of the beach, about where R. E. Campbell's 
house now stands, and there he built a log cabin 
and a large cooper shop in which he and his boys, 
James, Jacob, and Amos, carried on the trade. 
The hoops were made from the yellow birch 
sprouts which sprung up quickly wherever the 
original growth of forest trees was cut away. 
Sometimes the father and one or another of the 
boys would make trips alongshore in the boat 
collecting the sprouts, going as far as the head 
of Frenchman's Bay. The eldest son, James 
Clement, could tell afterwards of the time when 
the Tenedos anchored off the shore in 1814:, and 
how he went off to her with his father to sell a 
pig. One autumn night the log house caught fire 
and burned to the ground. With it went all the 
provisions stored for the winter and wellnigh all 
the household goods. The family pulled through 
the winter somehow, living in the big cooper 
shop, and in the spring built a frame house. 

The Clements had, of course, no legal title to 
their claim. They simply established " squatters' 
rights." All the land was owned by the Bingham 
heirs, whose agent at that time was Colonel Black 
at Ellsworth. As other squatters settled on the 
shore some confusion arose. John Bracy had 
settled at Bracy's Cove, next to the westward, 
and he had secured a title to the two hundred- 
acre lots between Seal Harbor and Long Pond. 
It was rumored that he also wanted a title to the 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 285 

lands on which the Clements were living. James 
Clement rowed to Somesville, got a horse, fol- 
lowed the trail to the Narrows, was ferried over, 
and pushing on reached Ellsworth early in the 
morning. He entered his claim, and as he came 
down the steps of Colonel Black's office met his 
neighbor Bracy coming up. James reserved for 
himseK the western lot at the head of the harbor 
and his brothers took the eastern lot where Jacob 
Clement later built the house in which his 
daughter Mrs. Lynam now lives. James built a 
comfortable farmhouse on the present site of the 
Seaside Inn. 

After the father's death the Clements aban- 
doned coopering for fishing. James went with 
Captain Thomas Stanley to the Magdalen Islands 
for herring. Jacob followed in another vessel, 
and Amos had charge of smoking and curing the 
catch on the beach at home. To this later was 
added a porgy oil business which was temporarily 
successful. James Clement's skill as a cooper and 
his inventive talent proved helpful in the fishing 
fleet. As the herring fleet lay at Canso waiting 
good weather, he went into a swamp, cut an ash, 
and made a big dip-net, whose use shortened and 
lightened the work of baHng the fish from the 
seines into the boats. 

Amos Clement in 1849 went to California in 
the ship Gold Hunter, and later tried farming 
in Wisconsin, and a sorghum sugar business in 



286 MOUNT DESERT 

Kansas. Jacob Clement went fishing out of Seal 
Harbor till his death, and James lived to a ripe 
old age, seeing the beginnings of Seal Harbor as 
a prosperous summer resort. Their children and 
grandchildren are leading and active citizens of 
Mount Desert,^ dwelHng mostly at or about Seal 
Harbor. 

About the year 1812 William Gilley and 
Hannah Lurvey, his wife, decided to move from 
Norwood's Cove on to Baker's Island with their 
three little children. Up to that time Gilley had 
got his living chiefly on fishing or coasting ves- 
sels ; but, like most young men of the region, he 
was also something of a wood-cutter and farmer. 
He and his vdie had already accumulated a httle 
store of household goods and implements, and 
tools for fishing and farming. They needed no 
money wherewith to buy Baker's Island. There 
it lay in the sea, unoccupied and unclaimed ; and 
they simply took possession of it. 

William Gilley was a large, strong man, six 
feet tall, and weighing over two hundred pounds. 
His father is said to have come from Great Brit- 
ain at fourteen years of age. Hannah Gilley was 
a robust woman, who had lived in Newburyport 
and Byfield, Mass., until she was thirteen years 

1 Mr. Charles H. Clement of Seal Harbor has kindly fur- 
nished a manuscript from which these family reminiscences are 
chiefly derived. 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 287 

old, and had there had much better schooling 
than was to be had on the island of Mount De- 
sert. She was able to teach all her children to 
read, write, and cipher ; and all her life she valued 
good reading, and encouraged it in her family. 
Her father, Jacob Lurvey, was born in Gloucester, 
Mass., and married Hannah Boynton of Byfield. 
He served in the Revolutionary army as a boy. 
He lived to the age of ninety-two, and had ten 
children and seventy-seven grandchildren. The 
Lurveys are therefore still numerous at South- 
west Harbor and the vicinity. 

For William Gilley the enterprise of taking 
possession of Baker's Island involved much heavy 
labor, but few unaccustomed risks. For Hannah, 
his wife, it was different. She already had three 
little children, and she was going to face for her- 
self and her family a formidable isolation, which 
was absolute for considerable periods in the year. 
Moreover, she was going to take her share in the 
severe labors of a pioneering family. Even to 
get a footing on this wooded island — to land 
lumber, livestock, provisions, and the implements 
of labor, and to build the first shelter — was no 
easy task. A small, rough beach of large stones 
was the only landing-place, and just above the 
bare rocks of the shore was the forest. How- 
ever, health, strength, and fortitude were theirs ; 
and in a few years they had established them- 
selves on the island in considerable comfort. Nine 



288 MOUNT DESERT 

more cliildren were born to them there ; so that 
they ultimately had a family of twelve children, 
of whom six were sons and six daughters. All 
these children grew to maturity. Fortunately, 
the eldest child was a girl, for it was the mother 
that most needed help. Nine of the twelve chil- 
dren married, and to them were born fifty-eight 
children. 

After the family had been ten years on the 
island, it had been transformed into a tolerable 
farm. William Gilley was keeping about six cows, 
a yoke of oxen, tw^o or three young cattle, about 
fifty sheep, and three or four hogs. Several of 
the children were already contributing by their 
labor to the support of the family. The girls 
tended the poultry, made butter, and spun wool. 
The boys naturally helped in the work of the 
father. He, unaided except by his boys, had 
cleared a considerable portion of the island, burn- 
ing up in so doing a fine growth of trees — spruce, 
fir, birch, and beech. With his oxen he had 
broken up the cleared land, hauled off part of 
the stones and piled them on the protruding 
ledges, and gradually made fields for grass and 
other crops. In the earlier years, before flour be- 
gan to be cheap at the Mount Desert " stores," 
he had even raised a little wheat on the island ; 
but the main crops, beside hay, were potatoes and 
other vegetables for the use of the family and 
cattle. 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 289 

The wheat was carried in a boat to Somesville, 
ground and sifted into three grades, and carried 
back to the island for winter use. 

Food at the island was habitually abundant. 
It was no trouble to get lobsters. No traps were 
needed ; they could be picked up in the shallow 
water along the rocky shore. Fresh fish were 
always to be easily procured, except in stormy 
weather and in cold and windy February and 
March. A lamb could be killed at any time in 
the summer. In the fall, in sorting the flock of 
sheep, the family killed from ten to fifteen sheep ; 
and what they could not use as fresh mutton 
they salted. Later in the season, when the 
weather turned cold, they killed a " beef-critter," 
and sometimes two when the family grew large. 
Part of this beef was salted, but part was kept 
frozen throughout the winter to be used fresh. 
Sea-birds added to their store of food. Shoot- 
ing them made sport for the boys. Ducks and 
other sea-fowl were so abundant in the fall that 
the gunners had to throw away the bodies of the 
birds, after picking off all the feathers. The 
family never bought any salt pork, but every 
winter made a year's supply. Although codfish 
were easily accessible, the family made no use of 
salt cod. They preferred mackerel, which were 
to be taken in the near waters in some month of 
every year. They had a few nets, but they also 
caught mackerel on the hook. During the sum- 



290 MOUNT DESERT 

mer and early autumn the family had plenty of 
fresh vegetables. 

For clothing the family depended mostly on 
wool from their own sheep. They used very little 
cotton. There were spinning-wheels and looms 
in the house, and the mother both spun and 
wove. Flax they raised on the island, and from 
it made a coarse kind of linen, chiefly for towels. 
They did, however, buy a cotton warp, and filled 
it with wool, thus making a comfortable sort of 
sheet for winter use or light blanket for summer. 
The wool of at least fifty sheep was used every 
year in the household, when the family had 
grown large. The children all went barefoot the 
greater part of the year ; but in the winter they 
wore shoes or boots, the eldest brother having 
learned enough of the shoemaker's art to keep 
the family supplied with footwear in winter. At 
that time there were no such things as rubber 
boots, and the family did not expect to have dry 
feet. 

Their uses for money were few ; but some es- 
sentials to comfort they must procure at the store, 
seven miles away, at Southwest Harbor, in re- 
turn for money or its equivalent. To get money 
they could sell or exchange butter and eggs at 
the store, and they could sell in Boston dried 
fish and feathers. The boys shot birds enough 
in a single year to yield over a hundredweight 
of feathers, worth fifty cents a pound in Boston. 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 291 

The family shipped their feathers to Boston every 
year by a coasting vessel ; and this product repre- 
sented men's labor, whereas the butter and eggs 
represented chiefly the women's labor. The but- 
ter was far the best of the cash resources ; it sold 
in the vicinity at twelve and a half cents a pound. 
There was one other source of money, namely, 
smoked herring. The herring which abound in 
these waters had at that time no value for bait ; 
but smoked herring could be sold in New York, 
which was the best market for them, at from 
seventy-five cents to one dollar and ten cents a 
box, each box holding half a bushel. The her- 
ring were caught, for the most part, in gill-nets; 
for there were then no weirs and no seines. The 
family had their own smoke-house, and made the 
boxes themselves from lumber which was sawed 
for them at the Somesville or the Duck Brook 
sawmill. Each of these sawmills was at least 
nine miles distant from Baker's Island ; so that 
it was a serious undertaking, requiring favorable 
weather, to boat the lumber from the mill and 
land it safely at the rough home beach. The 
family nailed the boxes together, out of the 
sawed lumber in the early fall, and packed them 
with the fragrant fish ; and then some coasting 
vessel carried the finished product to distant New 
York, and brought back, after a month or two, 
clear cash to pay for the winter's stores. 

In this large and united family the boys 



292 MOUNT DESERT 

stayed at home and worked for their parents 
until they were twenty-one years of age, and the 
girls stayed at home until they were married and 
had homes of their own or had come of age. It 
was not all work for the children on the island, 
or, indeed, for the father and mother. In the 
long winter evenings they played checkers and 
fox and geese ; and the mother read to the family 
until the children grew old enough to take their 
share in reading aloud. The boys, as soon as 
they were ten or twelve years of age, were in and 
out of boats much of the time, and so attained 
that quick, instinctive use of oar, sail, and tiller 
in which lies safety. When they grew older they 
had the sport of gunning, with the added interest 
of profit from the feathers. Their domestic ani- 
mals were a great interest as well as a great care. 
Then, they always had before them some of the 
most splendid aspects of nature. From their sea- 
girt dwelling they could see the entire hemisphere 
of the sky ; and to the north lay the grand hills 
of Mount Desert, with outline clear and sharp 
when the northwest wind blew, but dim and soft 
when southerly winds prevailed. In every storm 
a magnificent surf dashed up on the rockbound 
isle. In winter the low sun made the sea toward 
the south a sheet of shimmering silver ; and all 
the year an endless variety of colors, shades, and 
textures played over the surfaces of hills and 
sea. The delight in such visions is often but half 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 293 

conscious in persons who have not the habit of 
reflection ; but it is nevertheless a real source of 
happiness, which is soon missed when one brought 
up amid such pure and noble scenes is set down 
among the straitened, squalid, ugly sights of a 
city. On the whole, the survivors of that isolated 
family look back on their childhood as a happy 
one ; and they feel a strong sense of obligation 
to the father and mother — particularly to the 
mother, because she was a person of excellent 
faculties and an intellectual outlook. Like most 
of her people for two generations, she was a, 
member of the Congregational Church ; and in 
the summer time she took the eldest children 
nearly every Sunday to the church at Southwest 
Harbor, going seven miles each way in an open 
boat. To be sure, the minister taught that hell 
was paved with infants' skulls, and descriptions 
of hell-fire and the undying worm formed an 
important part of every discourse. Some of the 
children supposed themselves to accept what they 
heard at church ; but the mother did not. She 
bought books and read for herself; and by the 
time she had borne half a dozen children she 
could no longer accept the old behefs, and be- 
came a Universalist, to which more cheerful faith 
she adhered till her death. 

In 1828 the government built a lighthouse on 
Baker's Island, and William Gilley was appointed 
light-keeper, with a compensation of $350 a year 



294 MOUNT DESERT 

in money, the free occupation of a house, and all 
the sperm oil he could use in his household. He 
held this place until the year 1849, when, on the 
coming into power of the Whig party, he was 
turned out and a Whig was appointed in his place. 
Perhaps in recognition of his long service it was 
considerately suggested to him that he might 
retain his position if he should see fit to join the 
dominant party ; but to this overture he replied, 
with some expletives, that he would not change 
his political connection for all the lighthouses in 
the United States. In these twenty years William 
Gilley undoubtedly was able to lay up some por- 
tion of his pay, besides improving his buildings, 
livestock, boats, tools, and household furniture, 
and from these savings he was able to furnish a 
little money to start his sons each in his own career. 
The father was himself an irrepressible pioneer, 
always ready for a new enterprise. In 1837, long 
before he was turned out of the Hghthouse, he 
bought for three hundred dollars Great Duck 
Island, an uninhabited island about five miles 
southwest of Baker's Island and even more diffi- 
cult of access, his project being to raise livestock 
there. Shortly after he ceased to be light-keeper, 
when he was about sixty-three years old, and his 
youngest children were grown up, he went to 
live on Great Duck, and there remained almost 
alone until he was nearly eighty years of age. 
His wife Hannah had become somewhat infirm, 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 295 

and was unable to do more than make him occa- 
sional visits on Duck Island. She died at sixty- 
nine, but he lived to be ninety-two. Each lived 
in their decHning years with one of their married 
sons, Hannah on Little Cranberry and William 
on Baker's.^ 

A somewhat different but equally representa- 
tive career was that of Deacon Henry H. Clark, 
who was for many years the most noteworthy 
resident of Southwest Harbor. He was born on 
Clark's Point, on February 2, 1811. His father 
had come from Massachusetts a few years before 
and built on the beach a humble dwelling of one 
story with an L projecting somewhat over the 
water. The region behind the house was a dense 
thicket of spruce timber running to the water's 
edge. A few other little dwellings like it stood 
on the point amid the stumps. A rough trail, 
called a road, meandered with no apparent end 
in view from the extremity of the point up over 
the ridge of land, and soon towards Beech 
Hill. 

The year after Mr. Clark was born the United 
States declared war with England, and when he 
was three and a half years old the skirmish called 
the battle of Norwood's Cove occurred, which he 

^ This account of the Gilley family is taken almost without 
change from the little book entitled John Gilley, Maine Farmer 
and Fisherman, by Charles W. Eliot, Boston, 1904. 



296 MOUNT DESERT 

remembered to the end of his life. It was just 
before this skirmish that Joseph Moore, an im- 
mediate ancestor of the Moores now Kving in 
Manset, came to the house of Mrs. Clark saying 
that the British were likely to come on shore, 
and that they would kill and burn everything 
and everybody who opposed them, and urging 
her to flee for life. She placed her children in 
a boat and rowed across the harbor and found 
refuge with Peter Dallian, in a house which was 
well hidden by woods. This affair, though of 
short duration, made an indelible impression, and 
Deacon Clark was always delighted to tell of it 
as his first and only battle. 

As young Clark grew up he attended the vil- 
lage school and later the Blue Hill Academy. 
At the same time his cousin, Davis Wasgatt 
Clark, afterwards Bishop Clark, left his home on 
Beech Hill to attend school, and urged him to 
go with him, perhaps to become, like his cousin, 
a preacher of the gospel. To put it into his 
own words : " I liked the idea of getting out 
into the world, but I liked better to see money 
coming in than to seeing it going out, and I 
did not realize the value of an education." At 
seventeen Mr. Clark was teaching school at Bar 
Harbor. He did his own fire-lighting and sweep- 
ing, and provided, as was the custom, the brooms 
to sweep with. These were made of spruce 
brush. About this time he joined the Baptist 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 297 

Church, on the south side of the Harbor, and for 
a half century it was the object of his assiduous 
care. 

He early developed great fondness for the sea. 
The coasting trade was lively then, and every 
hamlet had its knot of " skippers." The ambition 
of the village boys was to become sea-captains 
and sail a vessel to the West Indies. In 1835, at 
twenty-four years of age, Clark make his first 
venture. With Captain Jacob Mayo for his mate 
he sailed to Boston and started to return on De- 
cember 15, 1835. They ran into a wintry gale 
with blinding snow, and at eleven at night saw 
breakers ahead and were cast ashore. Clark and 
Mayo got on to a narrow bar of sand which the 
receding tide made wider, and there they spent 
the night. Next day they were found by duck 
hunters and shown a village in the distance, where 
they got dry clothing and supplies. Then they 
got their little schooner off, patched her up, and 
finally reached home safely. Not discouraged, he 
continued to put his savings into vessels, and 
whether as skipper or owner steadily prospered. 
Almost every year saw some craft of his on the 
stocks, and he became the largest builder and 
owner of coasting craft on the island. In his last 
sickness he spoke often of his vessels, whose old 
and sea-worn hulks were rotting in the cove at 
home. 

In 1836 he married Caroline Richardson of 



298 MOUNT DESERT 

Bar Harbor, a happy union that passed the 
golden-wedding hmit. His house was small and 
intended only for a private residence, but it early 
became a centre for artists, sportsmen, and other 
summer wanderers. He was first on the island to 
hang out a hotel sign, which is now in possession 
of his son, Henry Clark. He had always insisted 
that Clark's Point was the place for a steamboat 
landing, and he built the wharf which offered the 
earliest steamboat connection on the island. 

In 1869 Deacon Clark with foresight and en- 
ergy began to organize a telegraph company to 
construct and operate a telegraph line from South- 
west Harbor through Somesville to Ellsworth. He 
secured a charter under the name of Tremont and 
Ellsworth Telegraph Company in May, 1869 ; the 
work was completed in 1870, and the company 
began operations with Mr. Clark as president. 
One year later, in May, 1871, a branch line was 
built at Bar Harbor. This company was not finan- 
cially successful, but it incidentally accomplished 
much for the development of Mount Desert as a 
summer resort. 

Deacon Clark was always active at town meet- 
ings, and the boys were interested to hear him 
speak. He measured his words either in approval 
or in criticism. He had argumentative qualities, 
a distinct gift of oratory, — masterful, quaint, 
homely, self-possessed, and convincing. In his 
later days he was accorded a seat beside the 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 299 

moderator and clerk, where he listened intently 
to the proceedings, no word of which escaped 
him. 

Deacon Clark was a Baptist, but in 1884, when 
a movement was made for building a union 
meeting-house on the north side of the harbor. 
Deacon Clark was a leader in the movement, con- 
tributed the land, and agreed to take on himself 
the cost of building one third of the structure. 
The house was completed in 1885, and dedicated 
in September of that year. A Baptist convention 
of the churches of Hancock County was then 
holding its session at Southwest Harbor, and 
many clergymen from abroad were in attendance. 
The hotels of the village were closed. He kept 
open house and took the convention almost bodily 
to his house as his guests. One hundred and fifty 
persons were entertained by him. 

Deacon Clark was a shrewd man in business 
transactions, unwilling to be outwitted, eager for 
the best end of a bargain, but magnanimous and 
always ready to extend a helping hand to the 
needy and destitute. No man went hungry from 
his door. In his old age it was interesting to en- 
gage him in conversation. He seemed easily to 
master any subject to which he gave his attention, 
whether the simple details of local concerns or the 
more complex problems of national policy. One 
wondered whether if he had received a higher 
education he would not have commanded a very 



300 MOUNT DESERT 

wide influence. He was unwilling to relinquish 
his hold on business concerns, and long after the 
time had come for him to seek the rest which he 
had earned, activity continued to be his nature 
and habit. 

The reminiscences of Mr. Eben M. Hamor of 
Town Hill afford an interesting glimpse of the 
social conditions on the island in the first half 
of the nineteenth century. Mr. Hamor writes : 
" During Andrew Jackson's second administra- 
tion, from March 3rd, 1833, to March 3rd, 1837, 
Capt. William Thompson, who lived on Thomp- 
son's island, was mail contractor on the route 
from Ellsworth to Mount Desert ; and in the 
spring of 1836 he employed my father to carry 
the mail from the Narrows to Southwest Harbor 
and back, one trip a week, for fifty dollars a 
year. My father told me I must carry the mail 
and earn this fifty dollars. On Friday, the 25th 
day of March, 1836, the day before I was four- 
teen years of age, I took the mail bag at the 
Narrows at about four o'clock p. m. and carried 
it on horseback to the Eden office ; thence home 
to my father's on Town Hill. The next morning, 
it being my fourteenth birthday, I carried the 
mail to the Mount Desert office (Somesville), 
thence to Southwest Harbor, arriving there about 
eleven o'clock. At about one o'clock I started 
on my return trip arriving at the Narrows about 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 301 

four." The mode of carrying the mail when the 
ground was bare was, from the Narrows to 
Mount Desert, sometimes on horseback, and 
sometimes with one horse and wagon, and the 
remainder of the way on horseback. When there 
was snow enough, a horse and sleigh could go 
over the whole route, though the road over 
Beech Hill to Southwest Harbor was nothing 
more than a bridle-path. 

" The bridge over the Narrows was built in the 
winter of 1836-7. Captain William Thompson 
and John M. Noyes built it on contract and it 
cost about $5000. Thompson's island was then 
part of the town of Eden. It was set off from 
Eden and annexed to Trenton in June, 1847. 
Captain Thompson kept a variety store, and built 
vessels, and was one of the prominent business 
men of the town. About a mile from the Nar- 
rows on the road to Eden post office, Elisha 
Cousins and his son Nahum had a blacksmith 
shop, Avhere they did blacksmith work for their 
neighbors. 

" The Eden post office was kept by Leonard J. 
Thomas in his dwelling house, which stood where 
John Hodgkins' house now stands. The settle- 
ment was known as the * Thomas District.' The 
Thomases were, for many years, prominent and 
influential citizens of the town of Eden, but like 
many other families the name has almost become 
extinct in that neighborhood. Leonard J. Thomas 



302 MOUNT DESERT 

and his father, Nicholas Thomas, at that time 
carried on the tanning and shoemaking business, 
having a tan yard and shoe shop and keejjing four 
or five men employed making shoes and boots 
during the fall and winter. Their bark mill was 
run by horse power. Some time previous to this, 
Nicholas Thomas had a wind-mill on the ledge 
at the southwest of his house, in which Eleazer 
Higgins ground the neighboring farmers' grain. 

" The office in Mr. Thomas' house was the only 
post office in Eden, and consequently people 
came there from all parts of the town. I well 
remember frequently seeing Mr. Tobias Roberts 
from '■ Bar Island ' as the place was then called, 
Edward Brewer from Hull's Cove, John McFar- 
land from Salisbury Cove, and many others at 
the office after their mail. 

" After I had been two or three trips Captain 
Thompson advised me to ask Squire Thomas to 
swear me in as a mail carrier ; so when I arrived 
at the office I requested him to administer the 
oath of mail carrier to me. The office was full 
of people, many of them strangers, and I, a boy 
who never had heard an oath administered, was 
required to stand there in the presence of that 
crowd, hold up my hand, announce my name 
and repeat after him the oath of allegiance to 
the United States ; and that I would faithfully 
perform the duties of mail carrier. I never was 
so frisfhtened before or since. 




EBEN M. HAMOR 



SOCIAL A^D INDUSTRIAL 303 

" The next place on my route was Town Hill, 
which received the name on account of the town 
owning a tract of land containing 450 acres 
extending over the hill from northeast to south- 
west. The settlers were Gideon Mayo, Simeon 
Hadley, Amos T. Hadley, Samuel Higgins, David 
Higgins, James Mayo, Joseph Higgins, Thomas 
Kuowles, William Hamor, Thomas Mayo, and 
Benjamin Kittredge. They were occupied in 
farming and lumbering. The next settler on 
the route was Dr. Kittredge, who lived across the 
bound of the town of Mount Desert, where his 
son William Kittredge, now lives. He moved to 
Mount Desert in 1799, and was the only practi- 
cing physician on the island for many years. 

^^ About one mile farther south was the Mount 
Desert post office, kept by John Somes. The 
village was then called 'Between the Hills,' 
afterwards Somesville, and it was then the most 
important business place on the island. It con- 
sisted of nine families. Dr. Kendall Kittredge, 
Captain Eben E. Babson, David Richardson, 
Timothy Mason, Abraham Somes, Daniel Somes, 
John Somes, John Somes, Jr., and Isaac Somes. 
There were in the place one small store, one 
blacksmith shop, one shoe-maker's shop, one tan 
yard, two ship yards, one bark mill, one saw mill, 
one lath mill, one shingle mill, one grist mill, 
and one school house in which schools and meet- 
ings were held. 



304 MOUNT DESERT 

" The John Somes family, John Jr., Jacob, 
and Abraham, kept the stores, built vessels, ran the 
blacksmith shop and were interested in the saw 
and grist mills. Of the Abraham Somes family, 
George B. was engaged in the mill business, 
sawing long lumber, laths and shingles. He also 
owned an interest in the grist mill. Isaac owned 
and operated a carding and fulling mill, where 
the farmers from all parts of the island and ad- 
jacent islands and main land brought their wool 
to be carded, and their cloth that their wives had 
woven, to have it sheared, fulled and colored. 
The Daniel Somes family, David and Lewis, were 
tanners and shoemakers, and kept some six or 
more men making boots and shoes during the 
most part of the year. Some of these men were 
William S. Richardson, John "VVasgatt, Nathan 
Salisbury, Israel Havens, William B. Stevens, 
Haskel Norwood, and Jacob Randlett. I dis- 
tinctly remember Old Uncle Abraham and 
Uncle John Somes and how they tended the 
grist mill by turns, one tending one week, the 
other the next ; with their long coats and hats 
all covered with meal and flour. They appeared 
to me as very venerable men. I do not remember 
much about Uncle Daniel. They were the sons 
of Lieutenant Abraham Somes, the first settler 
of Somesville, and the other Someses mentioned 
were his grandsons. 

" Timothy Mason was a ship builder and at one 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 305 

time lived at Oak Hill, where he built a small 
vessel and hauled it to Somesville. He was a son 
of the William Mason who was killed at Bar 
Harbor by the British in the war of 1812. 
David Richardson was a farmer and lumberman. 
He was a son of James Richardson, the first 
Richardson that settled on Mount Desert. The 
road ran to the west of all the houses in the vil- 
lage except David Richardson's, and crossed the 
brook near the cemetery. A branch mail ran 
from here to Seal Cove, where Squire William 
Heath was postmaster. 

" There was a trail on the east side of Den- 
nings pond (as Echo lake was then called) but 
the road I travelled led over Beach hill and 
across the mountains to the head of Norwoods 
cove. There were eleven families living on Beach 
hill and they were located in the following order, 
going toward Southwest Harbor : Richard Rich- 
ardson, Stephen Richardson, David Seavey, Na- 
thaniel Richardson, Stephen Richardson, 2nd, 
John Richardson, William Atherton, David Was- 
gatt, Asa Wasgatt, John Clark, and Reuben Bil- 
lings. They too were occupied in farming and 
lumbering. There was a school house near the 
northern part of the settlement, and a saw mill 
at the outlet of Dennings pond. Asa Wasgatt 
was a local Methodist preacher and John Clark 
was the father of David Clark, who became 
Bishop Clark. 



306 MOUNT DESERT 

"The post office at Southwest Harbor was kept 
by Captain Da\4d King in his two-story house 
on Kings point where his son Joseph now hves. 
Henry Jones of Ellsworth was deputy collector 
and lived in one part of Captain King's house. 
The inhabitants of Southwest Harbor were 
mostly engaged in coasting and fishing. A large 
number of fishing vessels were owned there. 
Many of them were sent in the spring to the Mag- 
delene Islands for herring, which were brought to 
Southwest Harbor or the neighborhood, smoked, 
boxed, and shipped to the westward, making a 
large business. After the vessels discharged their 
herring they were fitted out for shore or bank 
fishing, which business they followed for at least 
four months, to entitle them to a bounty which 
the United States paid, subject to certain condi- 
tions. Smoke houses were located all along the 
shores, in which the Magdelene herring were 
smoked in the spring, and the shore herring in 
the fall. The principal business men were the 
Fernalds on Fernalds Point, James Freeman the 
blacksmith, Nathan Clark and his sons, Henry, 
Seth and Eaton, who lived and kept a store and 
fish stand on Clarks point, and Samuel Osgood 
and his son, Samuel Osgood, Jr., who kept quite 
a large store on the south side of the harbor 
where Horace Durgan afterward lived. 

"Rev. Micah W. Strickland, the Congregation- 
alist minister, who married Miss Mary Ann Kit- 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 307 

tredge, daughter of Dr. Kittredge, lived in the 
house afterwards owned and occupied by Mr. 
Nehemiah Cousins. The white meeting house 
stood on the south side of the harbor where it 
does now. The road to Bass Harbor began near 
this meeting house and came out at the head of 
Bass Harbor marsh, near where the bridge now 
crosses the brook. There was no mail route to 
Bass Harbor, but a man by the name of Farley 
was employed by the people there to carry their 
mail. He was an old man and used to carry his 
mail matter in a canvas bag. I carried the mail 
eighteen months, one trip a week, and am sure 
that there was not a bushel of mail matter in the 
mail bag at one time while I carried it. 

"It may be of interest to know that there were 
no envelopes or postage stamps at that time. 
Letters were written on sheets of paper, then 
folded in different ways according to the fancy or 
ingenuity of the writer, then sealed with sealing 
wax. Postage on letters was 6^, 12^, 18f and 25 
cents, according to the distance, and usually paid 
by the receiver. There were coins or silver pieces 
of money in circulation, worth 6h cents called 
fourpence, half penny, — 12^ cents called nine- 
pence. One fourpence half penny and one nine- 
pence were worth 18f cents. I do not think that 
there was a daily or semi-weekly paper taken on 
the island at that time. Postage on weekly papers 
was fifty cents per year, paid by the subscribers." 



308 MOUNT DESERT 

Thirty-five years after the times thus described 
by Mr. Hamor, when Mr. Dodge printed his httle 
history, guide book, and directory, a considerable 
change had taken place. There were then (1871) 
in the town of Mount Desert eight general or 
variety stores, the same number in Eden, and thir- 
teen in Tremont. Dividing among the villages, 
there were five at Somesville, five at Bass Harbor, 
four at Southwest Harbor, three at Bar Harbor, 
two each at Eden, Salsbury's Cove, and Goose 
Cove, and one each at Seal Cove, Center, Town 
Hill, Bartlett's Island, Northeast Harbor, and 
Long Pond. There were also three "merchants" 
on the Cranberry Islands. Most of these " stores " 
were very small, but at each of the principal vil- 
lages one at least carried a considerable amount 
and variety of stock. The Whitings at Somes- 
ville, the Holdens at Bass Harbor, Clark & 
Parker at Southwest Harbor, kept substantial 
country stores, while the Prebles on Great Cran- 
berry, the Hadlocks on Little Cranberry, and Dea- 
con Kimball at Northeast Harbor did a consider- 
able trade with passing coasters and fishermen 
who came in for harbor. The trades practiced 
among the people were naturally those most 
available in small communities, such as those of 
the carpenter, blacksmith, mason, cobbler, and 
cooper. In the four towns there were, according 
to Mr. Dodge's carefully compiled Business Direc- 
tory, thirty-four house carpenters, thirty-seven 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 309 

ship carpenters and boat-builders, eighteen black- 
smiths, nine cobblers, six coopers, and six stone 
masons. The chief industries were lumber, ice, 
fish, and granite. Mr. Lyman Somes had a little 
woolen mill at Somesville, and his name appears 
in the Directory as a wool carder and a dresser 
and finisher of cloth. William Underwood & Co., 
of Boston, had started the lobster factory on the 
wharf at Southwest Harbor. The Prebles on 
Great Cranberry and the Hadlocks on Little 
Cranberry were fish-dealers, owning a consider- 
able fleet of vessels and engaged in a large trade 
in dried fish, oil, and other sea products. A score 
or more men were specifically engaged in the 
herring curing business, in which almost every 
man with a shore frontage had a hand. 

The building of small vessels still went on in 
several little shipyards. The ways of A. J. Whit- 
ing & Co. and the yard of George Somes, at the 
head of the sound, were almost always occupied. 
A little later the stone-cutting business became a 
leading industry. The granite quarries on either 
side of the sound were opened in the early seven- 
ties and employed large gangs of men in busy 
seasons. 

Two steam sawmills, one at Pretty Marsh and 
one at Salsbury's Cove, were running, and ten 
water sawmills — the best powers being on the 
Somes Stream at Somesville, on Heath's stream and 
at Seal Cove, and on Duck Brook at Bar Harbor. 



310 MOUNT DESERT 

There were ten post-offices in the four towns. 
These were at Somesville, Northeast Harbor, Eden, 
West Eden, Salsbury's Cove, Bar Harbor (then 
called East Eden), Southwest Harbor, Bass Har- 
bor, Seal Harbor, and Great Cranberry. Of jus- 
tices of the peace there were five in Mount Desert, 
two in Eden, eight in Tremont, four in Cranberry 
Isles ; of ministers there was one at Somesville 
serving the Union Church, then the only active 
church organization in the town of Mount Desert, 
and one at Southwest Harbor, serving the Meth- 
odist Church. The Baptist Church at Salsbury's 
Cove and the old Union Meeting-Houses at Eden 
and East Eden, the Congregational and Baptist 
Churches of Tremont, and the Union Church of 
Great Cranberry were without pastors. 

The summer hotel business had by 1871 begun 
to make an appearance with a list of the primitive 
"hotels" at Bar Harbor and Southwest Harbor, 
but this business had had as yet little or no 
effect on industrial and social conditions. 

Division of labor was not carried very far and 
most of the men carried on a number of different 
trades. They naturally learned to do many things 
indifferently well rather than one thing perfectly. 
Almost all the young men followed the sea for a 
time either in coasters or fishing vessels and all 
householders did a bit of farming. All were rough 
carpenters and painters and equally at home in a 
boat, a jigger, or a buckboard. Every able-bodied 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTEIAL 311 

person, that is, was accustomed to work with the 
hands. The men tended livestock, cut hay, raised 
garden vegetables, worked on the roads, cut ice 
and wood, hauled stone and firewood and sand in 
jigger or scow, cured cod and herring, tended 
lobster-pots, went fishing, built and painted boats, 
split paving-stones, made harness. The women 
did all the household work, took care of the poul- 
try, made butter, made clothes, often spinning 
wool from their own sheep into yarn, taught 
school, took summer boarders, helped in the 
herring curing, picked berries, went to sewing- 
circle, gave suppers, and rendered all kinds of 
help in the household emergencies that arose in 
neighbors' families. Examples of the variety of 
occupation can readily be selected from Mr. 
Dodge's Business Directory. Mr. A. C. Fernald 
was a representative citizen living modestly on 
Sutton's Island. He was a town officer, an insur- 
ance agent, a " coffin manufacturer," a notary 
public, a fish inspector, a surveyor of lumber, a 
justice of the peace, and he doubtless raised his 
own vegetables, split and carried in his firewood, 
cut his hay, cured herring, and did a hundred 
other " chores." Mr. E. M. Hamor at Town Hill 
was (and is) postmaster, justice of the peace, 
town clerk, keeper of the country store, land 
surveyor, surveyor of lumber, deacon in the 
Baptist Church, school-teacher, town historian, 
and so the list of just such self-reliant, competent, 



312 MOUNT DESERT 

thrifty, indomitable New Englanders might be 
extended till it included representatives of almost 
every family. 

In 1890, President Eliot printed in the " Century 
Magazine " an article called " The Forgotton Mil- 
lions," in which he described with great minute- 
ness the conditions of life, the mode of govern- 
ment, and the social habits of the town of Mount 
Desert. The following extracts from this striking 
description of a wholesome and contented com- 
munity are illustrative. "The population," he 
said, " which in 1880 numbered 1017 and about 
1400 in 1889, is scattered along the shores of the 
sea and the inlets. The number of houses in the 
town in the summer of 1889 was about 280, of 
which one tenth were for summer use only. The 
average number of persons to a house is therefore 
between five and six. The surnames which are 
common in the town are chiefly English (Wall, 
Davis, Grover, Clement, Dodge, Lynam, Bracy, 
Savage, Kimball, Smallidge, Jordan, Gilpatrick, 
Roberts, Manchester, Atherton, Richardson, 
Somes, Wasgatt, Smith, Freeman, Bartlett, and 
Carter) ; but a few, such as Murphy, Callahan, 
and Fenelly, indicate an Irish descent, near or 
remote. The government is by town-meeting, — 
an unqualified democracy, — and the officers an- 
nually elected are three selectmen, who also serve 
as assessors and overseers of the poor, a treasurer, 
a town clerk, a commissioner of roads, and a 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 313 

superintendent of schools. Most of these officials 
are paid by the day, and their total cost to the 
town is decidedly modest ($400 to $500 a 
year). . . . 

" The taxpayers in Mount Desert are much 
more numerous than the polls, because many 
women, children, and non-residents are taxed. 
Thus in 1889 the taxpayers numbered 578, of 
whom 176 were non-resident taxpayers. These 
were mostly people of the same county who for- 
merly lived in the town, or who had bought land 
there on speculation. The number of persons 
from without the State who had built houses in 
the town for summer occupation was only sixteen 
down to the summer of 1889. 

" The largest tax paid in the town for that year 
was $152; and the rate being $33 on $1000, 
this largest tax implied a valuation of $4606.06 
for the estate which was assessed highest. The 
incidence of the whole tax-levy, as shown in the 
following table, is interesting because it exhibits 
approximately the distribution of property among 
the townspeople. There are no rich persons in 
the town ; very few who have not acquired some 
property ; and fewer still who are not in condi- 
tion to bear their share of the pubHc burdens : — 

263 persons, or estates, paid each a tax between SO and 85 

105 " " " " " " 5 " 10 

102 " «« u u « u 10 " 20 

47 « «< " « " " 20 " 30 

29 " " " " " " 30 " 40 



314 MOUNT DESERT 

9 persons, or estates, paid each a tax between S40 and $50 



6 
5 


« ( 


« 


( i< ( 


50 ' 
60 ' 


60 
70 


3 


i< ( 


" 


1 t( < 


70 ' 


80 


3 


(t i 


<i 


( « < 


80 ' 


90 


2 


« ( 


" 


. .« < 


100 • 


110 



1 person, or estate, paid between $90 and $100; one paid 
$127; one 8150; and one $152. 

" The principles on which the taxes are levied 
are highly instructive, this poor and sparsely 
settled town having long practiced a method of 
taxation far more conservative than the methods 
which prevail in the rich and populous New Eng- 
land communities. In the first place, the valu- 
ation is low and the rate high, the valuation 
remaining very constant and the rate being deter- 
mined each year by the amount which the town 
votes to raise. A low valuation tends to keep the 
state and county taxes low, although the returns 
of town valuations are subject to correction by a 
State Valuation Commission. Secondly, the as- 
sessors pay no attention to speculative or fancy 
values. . . . Thirdly, no attempt is made to tax 
things invisible and undiscoverable, although the 
laws of Maine prescribe the taxation of bonds, 
money at interest, and other forms of personal 
property which are easily concealed. The items 
on the assessors' books consist exclusively of 
things which are under the public eye. 

" The low valuation for purposes of taxation is, 
on the whole, more acceptable to each taxpayer 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 315 

than an accurate or supposed market-price valu- 
ation would be ; and it is a more stable basis for 
the annual assessment of the necessary taxes. 
The annual valuations, whether of real estate or 
of personal property, are never appealed to as indi- 
cating market-price or actual value. The items 
on the assessors' books (which are open to in- 
spection by any citizen) are divisible into real 
estate, personal property, and polls — land and 
buildings constituting the real estate ; cattle, 
horses, mules, sheep, swine, pleasure carriages, 
musical instruments, household furniture above 
$200 in value, logs, timber, boards, vessels, and 
stock in trade or employed in arts, constituting 
the personal property. All these things are vis- 
ible to every neighbor. No mquisitorial methods 
are necessary, and no returns of property under 
oath are asked for. Stock in trade is roughly 
estimated at low figures, the contents of a well- 
filled country variety store, for example, being 
valued at $500 year after year. For purposes of 
taxation the land is divided into mowing or til- 
lage, pasture and unimproved land. From $10 
to $30 per acre is the common valuation for til- 
lage land ; $4 per acre is the commonest valu- 
ation of pasture land ; and for unimproved land 
the range of valuation is from $4 to $20 per 
acre, according to its capacities. . . . 

" The total valuation has of course risen con- 
siderably since the town began to be a summer 



316 MOUNT DESERT 

resort, but is still very moderate. Indeed, it 
would no more than make a decent little property 
for a respectable merchant in New York or Chi- 
cago. The increase is mainly due to new build- 
ings, $40,000 of this increase being assessed to 
permanent residents, and $50,000 to summer 
residents. 

" A rate of $33 on every $1000 of the total 
valuation yields in most years, when added to the 
poll taxes ($3 a poll), the money needed to meet 
the annual appropriations. What are those appro- 
priations? — or, in other words, for what do the 
voters spend the money which they have them- 
selves contributed ? The following table answers 
this question for the years 1880-90, the year 
1880 being before the invasion of the town by 
summer visitors. 

" Appropriations made at the March town- 
meeting : — 



For 1880. 


For 1890. 




State and county taxes . 81,055.60 


State and county taxes 


8800.00 


Common schools , . . 733.60 


Common schools . . . 


813.60 


Roads and bridges . . 575.00 


Roads and bridges . . 


2,000.00 


Town charges .... 600.00 


Town charges .... 


800.00 


Poor 1,200.00 


Poor 


1,000.00 


Bridge at Little Harbor 


Bridge at Northeast 




Brook 150.00 


Harbor ..... 

Repairing two hills on 

Southwest Harbor 


60.00 




road 


300.00 




Free high school . . . 


150.00 




To buy school books . . 
Total 


800.00 


$4,314.20 


86,723.60 



" State and county taxes used to absorb nearly 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 317 

a quarter of the whole tax levy, but of late years 
have required less than one eighth. 

"For common schools the town appropriates 
just what the Maine statute requires, namely, 
eighty cents for each inhabitant according to the 
last census ; but this small appropriation is sup- 
plemented by a grant from the State of nearly 
as much more, which is derived from the school 
fund, the bank tax, and a tax of one mill on 
every dollar of valuation throughout the State. 
In addition to the town tax for schools, a sepa- 
rate district tax is occasionally levied for school 
buildings. For the year ending April 1, 1889, 
the number of scholars was 406, and the State 
grant of $712.11 added to the town appropri- 
ation of $813.60 made the whole sum available 
for common schools $1525.71, or $3.76 for each 
scholar for the year. Since 1886 the town has 
also appropriated annually from $100 to $200 a 
year for a high school, the State giving as much 
as the town raises, but not exceeding $250. 

" Roads and bridges have been the largest item 
on the list of appropriations since 1884. . . . 
This expenditure has undoubtedly been judi- 
cious ; for driving is one of the principal pas- 
times of the summer visitors, and gives profitable 
employment at that season to the horses and 
vehicles of the permanent residents. Moreover, 
the roads and bridges, having necessarily been 
constructed originally in the cheapest possible 



318 MOUNT DESERT 

manner as regards both laying out and surface, 
were costly in wear and tear of animals and vehi- 
cles, and costly also in annual repairs. . . . 

" The appropriation for the care of the town 
poor has been the next largest appropriation 
since 1884 ; but before that year it was usually 
the largest of the appropriations, as, for instance, 
in 1880, when it was more than one fourth of the 
whole tax-levy. The theory on which the voters 
act in making this appropriation is that the town 
is to take care of the incapable, crippled, and 
aged who are without means of support. No one 
in the town is to be hungry or cold. If some 
unusual misfortune overtakes a family ordinarily 
self-supporting, — like diphtheria among the chil- 
dren, or the prolonged sickness of the bread-win- 
ner, — that family is to be temporarily helped by 
the town. In short, everybody who has a domi- 
cile in the town is assured of a bare livelihood at 
all times, and of aid under special misfortunes. 
The idea that it is the duty of the town to take 
care of its poor is firmly planted in the mind of 
every inhabitant. The town officers will try to 
prevent an hereditary or constitutional pauper 
from acquiring a domicile in the town ; they will 
try to establish elsewhere shiftless families that 
are apt to need aid ; but they will relieve every 
case of destitution which fairly belongs in the 
town. There is no poorhouse ; so that persons 
who cannot support themselves are boarded and 



SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 319 

lodged in private houses at the expense of the 
town. . . . 

" The number of schoolhouses in the town was 
ten in 1889, and, on the average, school is kept 
in every schoolhouse for two terms of about nine 
weeks each in a year. The summer schools are 
usually kept by women, who are paid from four 
and one half to five dollars a week besides their 
board and lodging ; the winter schools, by men, 
who are paid about forty dollars a month, be- 
sides their board and lodging. In addition, the 
so-called high school is kept three terms of ten 
weeks each, but in three different districts. 
Eighteen weeks in the year are all the schooling 
a Mount Desert boy can get until he is far enough 
advanced to go to the high school for ten weeks 
more. Moreover, the two terms in each year are 
far apart, so that the pupil forgets a good deal 
between terms. ... In spite of their limited op- 
portunities, however, all the children of the town 
learn to read, write, and cipher well enough for 
practical purposes, and better than some children 
in cities and large towns who have twice the 
amount of schooling, — and that under sldllf ul 
teachers, — but pass the rest of their time under 
unfavorable conditions in crowded tenements and 
streets. The favorable result depends, first, on the 
keenness of the children's desire to learn; and, 
secondly, on the general home training. In an 
ordinary Mount Desert household, men, women. 



320 MOUNT DESERT 

and children all work with their hands for the 
common support and satisfaction. The children 
help the elders in the common family interest as 
soon as they can rock a cradle, drive a cow, 
sweep a floor, or bring from the post-office the 
precious w^eekly newspaper. Yet the children's 
labor, unlike factory work, is wholesome for body 
and mind. They thus acquire at home, in the 
best way, habits of application and industry 
which stand them in good stead during the short 
weeks of their scanty school terms." 



IX 

THE SUMMER COLONIES 



God ploughed one day with an earthquake, 

And drove His furrows deep ! 
The huddling plains upstarted, 

The hills were all aleap ! 

He hath made them the haunt of beauty. 

The home elect of His grace; 
He spreadeth His mornings on them; 

His sunsets light their face. 

His thunders tread in music 

Of footfalls echoing long, 
And carry majestic greeting 

Around the silent throng. 

His winds bring messages to them — 

Wild storm-news from the main ; 
They sing it down to the valleys 

In the love-song of the rain. 

Green tribes from far come trooping. 

And over the uplands flock ; 
He has woven the zones together 

As a robe for His risen rock. 

The people of tired cities 

Come up to their shrines and pray; 
God freshens again within them. 

As He passes by all day. 

William Channing Gannett. 



THE SUMMER COLONIES 

The first allusion in literature to the possibilities 
of Mount Desert as a summer resort is in Robert 
Carter's " Summer Cruise on the Coast of New 
England," which is the record of a trip made in 
a fishing smack in the summer of 1858 from 
Boston to Bar Harbor. Mr. Carter was then the 
Washington correspondent of the New York 
"Tribune," and his book is a collection of his let- 
ters contributed to that journal. His comrades on 
this trip, which was undertaken partly for fun and 
partly for scientific research in the department of 
marine zoology, were William Stimpson, the nat- 
uralist, called in the book " the Professor," Francis 
H. Underwood, the projector of the "Atlantic 
Monthly," called " the Assyrian," and Henry 
Ware, called " the Artist." The closing chapter 
of this entertainino; little book, which has lonof 
been out of print, contains the earliest descrip- 
tion of the scenery from the point of view of a 
" rusticator "and discloses the earhest conditions 
of the summer business at Mount Desert. 

Mr. Carter wrote : " The approach to Mount 
Desert by sea is magnificent. It is difiicult to 
conceive of any finer combination of land and 
water. . . . None of us knew anything of the 



324 MOUNT DESERT 

localities of Mount Desert, and we therefore put 
into the first harbor, which proved to be Bass 
Harbor. We landed about sunset and, not find- 
ing the village very attractive, started for South- 
west Harbor. . . . We could not obtain at Bass 
Harbor any conveyance, so we walked through 
the forest for several miles after dark, and for 
the last hour of the way had a fine night view 
of the mountains." The party found entertain- 
ment at the house of Deacon Clark, and the next 
morning hired the deacon's wagon and drove to 
Somes ville, and later, with some adventures that 
need not be here recorded, to Bar Harbor. It is 
interesting to note that on the Bar Harbor road 
" we drove through a forest where nothing living 
was visible but squirrels, rabbits, partridges, and 
an occasional eagle soaring overhead. We passed 
no house nor sign of human handiwork except a 
ruined mill." At Bar Harbor " we found excel- 
lent quarters in the house of Mr. Roberts, the 
postmaster and principal trader of the village." 
After spending two days at Bar Harbor the party 
rode back to Somesville and rejoined their sloop, 
sailed round to Bar Harbor, and there parted at 
the end of their cruise. Mr. Carter apparently 
was the first to call attention to the island as 
a " resort for artists and for seaside summer 
loungers," and his prophecies in regard to the 
future development of the place have been more 
than realized. 



THE SUMMER COLONIES 325 

The charm of Mount Desert as a summer re- 
sort is chiefly due to four things : the natural 
beauty of the island, the cool summer climate, 
the facilities for sailing and fishing alike on the 
smooth waters inside the sheltering islands or on 
the open sea, and the lure of the wild rocky hills, 
which are the highest on the Atlantic coast of 
the United States and deeply cut by pictur- 
esque valleys, ponds, and streams. The artists 
who were the earliest visitors did much to make 
the island famous. Church, Fisher, Cole, Gilford, 
Hart, Parsons, Warren, Bierstadt, and others of 
the older generation renowned in American art, 
painted the crags and the shining waters and 
gave fanciful names to some of the picturesque 
places, such as Eagle Lake, the Beehive, Echo 
Lake, and the Porcupine Islands.^ The artists of 
a later generation do not find the landscape as 

1 It is easy to deride the habit of summer visitors of giving 
fancy names to points of interest, and the names thus given are 
often inappropriate and sentimental. Not a few of the local and 
traditional names at Mount Desert are thoroughly good. Hull's 
Cove and Town Hill have a good colonial ring. Ironbound 
Island, Otter Creek, and Seal Cove are obviously appropriate. 
Pretty Marsh Harbor and Dram Island and Rum Key and Junk 
of Pork have a local flavor which commends them. It must, 
however, be acknowledged that the names of too many of the 
hills and streams and coves are very commonplace. It might 
still be well to substitute for such names as Green, Brown, and 
Robinson, Dog, Goose, and Ox, some of the historic names asso- 
ciated with the island, such as Champlain, Cadillac, Iberville, 
Westbrook, Bernard. These might even be as appropriate for 
post-offices as Tremont or McKinley or Sorrento. 



326 MOUNT DESERT 

interesting as did their comrades of an earlier 
school. It lacks " atmosphere." The typical 
Mount Desert day has a dry brilliancy which 
banishes the charm of mystery. The northwest 
wind is a tonic and the sunshine is vivifying, but 
on these characteristic days there are no soft 
horizons or shadowy distances such as the mod- 
ern artists prefer. Every outline is sharp and de- 
fined, every hue is emphasized. Never was there 
such a blue sea or such white sails or such spar- 
kling whitecaps or such bright green trees. Only 
when the fog wreaths sail in from the sea, or a 
soft southerly haze occasionally shrouds the sharp 
horizons, do objects attain the relative values 
which nowadays tempt a painter. 

It was certainly at a fortunate time for the 
Mount Desert people that the summer business 
began. The local occupations w^ere declining, 
and no new industries, like the granite business 
which developed later, had appeared to help 
solve the problem of making a living. The her- 
ring fisheries were becoming less and less profit- 
able, the coasting trade was slack, the hills had 
been stripped of the last trees suitable for saw- 
ing, the thin soil of the farms was practically 
exhausted. With the coming of the new popula- 
tion that arrived with the roses and disappeared 
with the first frosts, the whole aspect of affairs 
changed. The summer business meant for the 
people of the island towns an outward prosperity 



THE SUMMER COLONIES 327 

such as they had never imagined. The necessities 
of the summer people meant not only the open- 
ing of boarding-houses and hotels, it meant, too, 
employment throughout the year for carpenters, 
housebuilders, road-builders, caretakers, dress- 
makers, and mechanics of every kind ; it meant 
demand for milk, eggs, vegetables, chickens, and 
the farm products that were easily raised on the 
island ; it meant steadily increasing traffic for 
the local fishermen and lobstermen ; it meant 
employment in the summer for a host of young 
women in the hotels, and for young men in the 
sailing of pleasure boats and the driving of 
buckboards and carriages ; it meant the intro- 
duction of new industries, the dealing in coal 
and ice and hay, the raising of shrubs and flowers, 
and shopkeeping to an extent in variety and 
quality far in excess of the needs of the perma- 
nent population. More than this, the demands 
of the summer population meant rapid increase 
in means of transportation, and improvement in 
the size and speed and convenience of the steam- 
ers. In 1870 the only means of reaching the 
island was by stage from Bangor or by steam- 
boat twice a week from Portland. Soon there 
came in the summer months daily steamers of 
two or more lines, then the Maine Central Rail- 
road built to Mount Desert Ferry and ran its 
ferries first to Bar Harbor and later to all the 
principal landings. The sale of land for cot- 



328 MOUNT DESERT 

tages meant vastly increased resources for land- 
holders, and the increased income of the towns 
from taxation meant better schools and roads 
and bridges. The summer residents helped too, 
as we have seen, in the support of churches ; 
they raised the standards of living, and if they 
introduced some undesirable luxuries, empha- 
sized some unfortunate class distinctions, and 
were responsible for some vices formerly un- 
known, yet on the whole their influence was 
healthy in matters sanitary and social and reli- 
gious. 

The development of popular summer resorts 
on the New England coast has followed a curi- 
ously uniform law. Some beautiful place on the 
rugged shore, by beach or headland, or by shel- 
tered harbor, has first been discovered by artists 
in search of the picturesque or inspiring, or by 
adventurous sportsmen or campers or college 
students, or by families of moderate means in 
search of a change of scene and a fortnight's lib- 
erty. The development of the summer resort 
then begins by some farmer or fisherman taking 
these wanderers into his house to board, a thing 
which he has never done before and a responsi- 
bility that he is unwilling to assume and usually 
very incompetent to discharge. He finds, how- 
ever, that the venture is highly profitable, and 
after a few seasons of very modest and some- 
what reluctant entertainment he begins to dis- 



THE SUMMER COLONIES 329 

cover the possibilities of the business. He adds 
new chambers and enlarges the dining-room of 
his house and perhaps puts an advertisement in 
a city paper. In a few years he relieves his wife 
of the cooking by hiring some neighbor or a 
woman from another town, and little by little 
the farmer or fisherman grows into the proprie- 
tor of a summer hotel. Gradually his neighbors, 
emboldened by his success, follow his example, 
and soon their scattered village becomes a town 
with a main street and a steamboat landing, in- 
creased facilities of transportation, a livery sta- 
ble, perhaps a new church and places of amuse- 
ment. 

This stage of development usually lasts for 
several years, and the hotels, cheaply furnished, 
setting but a simple table, and maintained for 
short seasons, attract as a rule the same people 
year after year, who are on familiar terms of 
friendship with the proprietor and his " help," 
and who get well acquainted with one another. 
That period of development is brought to a close 
by the appearance of the cottager. In nine cases 
out of ten the cottager is at first a guest at the 
farmhouse or the hotel, who gets to love the 
place of his summer rest and some day quietly 
buys a lot of land, usually near the hotel, so 
that he need not be troubled with housekeeping. 
The next year he builds a cottage on his lot and 
gradually there grows up, almost imperceptibly, 



330 MOUNT DESERT 

a separation between liim and his family and 
those who were his fellow-boarders. The sum- 
mer community, at first homogeneous, is di- 
vided ; more cottages are built, housekeeping 
becomes the rule rather than the exception, new 
luxuries appear, the liberty of dress is more and 
more diminished, private entertainments take the 
place of the jolly expeditions in which every one 
joined ; then come servants, private carriages, 
and perhaps an exclusive club or casino. The 
original farmers and fishermen have probably by 
this time sold enough land to cottagers to enable 
them to give up taking boarders, and they either 
sell out to a hotel syndicate or retire to ease and 
luxury. Gradually the boarders find themselves 
more and more excluded from the social life of 
the place. They are unable or they do not wish 
to compete with the increasing luxury of the 
cottage life, so they withdraw silently from the 
scenes they have enjoyed, to plant the begin- 
nings of some new watering-place and repeat 
the process. This progressive dislodgment of 
the summer boarder along the New England 
shore and among the New England hills is, as 
a keen observer said, " the summer tragedy of 
American life." ^ 

This rule of development has been conspicu- 
ously illustrated on Mount Desert island. In the 
years just before the war a few artists, seeking 

^ E. L. Godkin, Recollections and Comments. 



THE SUMMER COLONIES 331 

beauty of scenery, found their way thither ; then 
slowly, in the years between 1860 and 1875, 
families began to come. The modest houses of 
the farming and fishing folk who welcomed, or 
rather reluctantly received, these explorers, grew 
rapidly into little boarding-houses and then into 
bigger boarding-houses. The callings of the 
steamer from Portland grew more frequent. At 
first Southwest Harbor was almost exclusively 
the place of resort, then Bar Harbor went through 
the same stages of development, then Northeast 
Harbor, and Seal Harbor. From the first the 
boarding contingent was largely made up of 
people of moderate means and of simple tastes. 
Probably the island was the scene of more plain 
living and high thinking than any other summer 
resort on the coast. It is recorded that even in 
the early days there was one distinction between 
boarders, but not one which caused ill-will. Some 
were "mealers," which meant people eating in 
the hotel where they slept, and others were 
" hauled mealers," or people who lived in neigh- 
boring farmhouses, and who were brought to 
their food at a central house in buckboards. It 
was a happy, easy, free summer life, and still 
maintains itself with a certain degree of success 
in some of the villages on the island. It has 
entirely disappeared at Bar Harbor, and main- 
tains only a precarious existence at Northeast 
Harbor and Seal Harbor. 



332 MOUNT DESERT 

The first summer cottages were very plain 
structures in which the owners simply slept and 
had a living-room, while they went to the hotels 
or to a neighboring " cookhouse " for meals. 
This practice for a time excited neither suspicion 
nor alarm, but as prices of land advanced, things 
changed. Gradually cottagers came into posses- 
sion of almost all the desirable shore sites from 
Hull's Cove to Somes Sound, and more and more 
they surrounded themselves with the luxuries of 
Hfe. More and more the boarders found them- 
selves excluded from their favorite walks along 
the shore and from the finest points of view. 
The regular boarders of old are now either cot- 
tagers, or else they have wandered on to some re- 
sort which, if it lacks the charm of Mount Desert 
scenery, permits of a less artificial summer life. 

The real beginning of the summer life on the 
island began with the building of Deacon Clark's 
wharf at Southwest Harbor which made possible 
regular landings of the Portland steamer. Mr. 
Clark's boarding-house grew into the consider- 
able hotel that he called the Island House. To 
this there were soon added the Castle and the 
Dirigo and the Claremont on Clark's Point, while 
at the head of the harbor Mr. Freeman built the 
Freeman House and on the southern shore Mr. 
Teague built the Ocean House and Mr. Stanley 
the Stanley. The cottage growth at Southwest 
Harbor was much slower. It did not begin until 



THE SUMMER COLONIES 333 

about 1885, and has never assumed the propor- 
tions attained at the other island resorts. The 
place still retains a large boarding element in the 
siunmer population, and, unlike Bar Harbor, the 
hotels continue to do a good business. 

The leading people at or near Bar Harbor in 
the days before the Civil War were the Higgins, 
Hamor, Rodick, and Roberts families. The land 
was thin and poor, the harbor was open to the roll 
of the sea, and the comparatively flat brush-clad 
point on which the town afterwards grew was 
not attractive to people looking primarily for a 
livelihood. The Rodicks had a good farm and 
fishing stand on Bar Island, but only a few fam- 
ilies tried to wrest a scanty living from the rocky 
soil of the point opposite. Between Duck Brook 
and Eddy's Brook there were only two houses. 
Below the bar Tobias Roberts had a boat landing 
and kept a small store, and in the sixties he began 
to take boarders, most of them artists or explor- 
ers, who, like Mr. Carter, wandered over from 
Southwest Harbor. The greater part of the pre- 
sent village north of Main Street is built on what 
was Captain James Hamor's farm. The Higgins 
homestead, where Church, the artist, boarded, 
stood near what is now the corner of Main and 
Cottage streets, and the present Mount Desert 
Block covers the site of the barn. Another Hig- 
gins family lived in what is now the Wayman 
Lane district near Cromwell's Harbor. 



334 MOUNT DESERT 

In twenty years, from a desolate tract of rough 
pasture land, bearing a few humble farm dwell- 
ings, Bar Harbor grew to be one of the most 
popular resorts on the New England coast. 
Gradually the exquisite beauty of the position of 
Bar Harbor, backed by the great hills and look- 
ing out on the island-gemmed bay and across to 
the Gouldsboro' hills, began to be talked about.^ 
In 1867 Tobias Roberts built a primitive little 

1 " No one would venture to describe the main street of Bar 
Harbor as handsome or attractive. It rises steeply from the 
steamboat wharf, and its lower part is adorned ' by a mushroom 
group of tents and shanties, the summer home of the almond- 
eyed laundryman, the itinerant photographer with a specialty 
of tintypes, and the seller of weary looking fruit, of sandwiches 
that have seen better days, and temperance drinks of gorgeous 
hues.' Farther up, bordering the board walk, there is a row of 
stores ' the proprietors of which perch, like birds of passage, 
pluming themselves in the sunshine of the brief season, and tak- 
ing flight again before the autumn gales.' In one window a lot 
of Turkish finery looks curiously exotic, especially the little slip- 
pers, gay with tassels and embroidery, turning up their pointed 
toes as if scorning the stouter footgear which tramps along out- 
side. Another shop is bright with the crude colors of Spanish 
scarfs and pottery ; in another, Japanese wares manage to keep 
their faint smell of the East in spite of the salt northern air, and 
farther on you may wonder at the misplaced ingenuity of Florida 
shell jewelry, and be fascinated by the rakish leer of the var- 
nished alligator. By one of the contrasts which make Bar Har- 
bor peculiarly attractive, next door to these cosmopolitan shops 
there still thrives one of the indigenous general stores, where 
salt fish are sold, and household furniture and crockery, and the 
candy peculiar to New England stores and New York peanut 
stands, which keeps through all vicissitudes a vague odor of saw- 
dust, and where you may also buy, as was once advertised by the 
ingenuous dealer, 'baby carriages, butter, and paint.'" F. 
Marion Crawford, Bar Harbor, 1896. 




f Wimu 



ii;m hotel at bar harbor 




FIRST COTTAGE AT BAR HARBOR 



THE SUMMER COLONIES 335 

hotel called the Agamont, and the next year, 
backed by Captain Deering and the steamboat 
company, built a wharf, and Captain Deering, 
who had heretofore called only at Southwest 
Harbor, began to make landings with the steamer 
Lewiston at Bar Harbor, too, and the village 
began to grow. The wharf was later acquired 
by the railroad company, and, greatly enlarged, 
is still the principal landing-place. 

Daniel Rodick, whose ancestors had settled on 
Bar Island a hundred years before, built the nu- 
cleus of the later Rodick House very early. The 
Bay View House followed in 1869. This was 
later vastly enlarged into the Grand Central and 
finally removed. The Atlantic was built in 1870, 
burned and rebuilt in 1873, and later became the 
Louisburg. The first part of the Newport was 
built in 1871, the Saint Sauveur was rebuilt after 
being burned in 1873, the Rockaway in 1873, the 
Deering, afterwards enlarged into the Malboi*- 
ough, in 1873, the Ocean House in 1874, the Bel- 
mont in 1879, the West End in 1880, and so on. 

Bar Harbor was at first a primitive place, and 
those who Hved at the hotels and boarding-houses 
of the earlier days had to exist largely on climate 
and scenery. The village was an unkempt ag- 
glomeration of big wooden shanties, and the life 
of the " rusticators " was altogether of an out- 
of-door character, easy-going as to costume, and 
informal as to manners and customs. Gradually, 



336 MOUNT DESERT 

following slowly and hesitatingly the increasing 
demand for comforts and luxuries, the hotels 
grew larger, and the bill of fare took on novel- 
ties and French names. The decade from 1875 
to 1885 was the period of the prosperity of the 
hotel life, the " Fish Pond " at Rodick's was 
famous all over the country, and the name of 
Bar Harbor was synonymous with a gay, uncon- 
ventional, out-of-door existence, with merry court- 
ships and happy, ii-responsible days. The first 
" cottage " was built in 1867 when Mr. Alpheus 
Hardy bought Birch Point of Stephen Higgins 
for $300, and other simple homes for summer 
occupancy followed, but not till about 1880 did 
the rapid change from hotel to cottage life begin. 
Then the value of land rose by the hundred per 
cent., superb houses began to be built, streets were 
laid out, sewers constructed, water and elec- 
tric hghts introduced, beautiful estates painfully 
developed from the rocky pastures, clubs and 
churches organized, and in ten years the whole 
social hfe and atmosphere of the rapidly increas- 
ing summer colony was transformed. Now the 
great hotels stand empty and desolate, though 
some of the smaller houses maintain a prosper- 
ous existence. An agreeable luxury, for the most 
part refined, though occasionally ostentatious, has 
replaced the earlier rudeness of board and lodg- 
ing, and " the season " is a matter of dinner 
dances, musicales, yachting parties, and balls, in 



THE SUMMER COLONIES 337 

the place of " hops," buckboard rides, and pic- 
nics. 

In 1880 Northeast Harbor was a scattered 
community of farming and fishing folk living in 
small houses along the shore. There were two 
families, the Savages and Robertses, at the head 
of the harbor, one farmhouse on the eastern 
shore, and the Frazier place on the western 
shore. There were no houses at aU where the 
" village " now clusters thickly, and one walked 
through thick woods to Squire Kimball's home- 
stead where the Kimball House now stands. On 
the shore of the harbor, to the south of the pre- 
sent wharf, stood the store where Mr. Kimball had 
once carried on a considerable trade with the 
coasters and fishermen who came in for shelter. 
Along the road leading up the sound were the 
houses of the SmalHdge, Gilpatrick, Manchester, 
and Fennelly famiHes, and the rough road ended 
at the Corson farm near the present golf club. 
The unpainted schoolhouse stood to the north of 
where the Schoolhouse Ledge road joins the town 
road. There was no church. The Gilpatricks 
kept a little store in connection with the post- 
office, and Mr. Corson drove the mail down from 
Somesville twice a week. The nearest steamboat 
connection and telegraph office were at South- 
west Harbor. People taking the twenty-two mile 
drive from Bar Harbor passed along the eastern 



338 MOUNT DESERT 

side of the harbor, but never came down the 
western side. " The httle hamlet," writes Bishop 
Doane, " was entirely without the modern con- 
veniences and comforts . . . the roads were very 
poor, there was no sufficient water supply, there 
was hardly a vehicle of any kind to be had at this 
end of the island, it was reached only by rowing 
or sailing from Southwest Harbor and it lay 
really unrecognized and unknown." 

In 1880 a company of Harvard students, under 
the lead of Charles Eliot, pitched camp on the 
eastern shore of Somes Sound just above the 
house of Mr. Asa SmalHdge, and there pursued 
some amateur scientific studies for two summers.^ 
In 1882 this camp of the Champlain Society was 
transferred to the head of Northeast Harbor near 
Captain A. C. Savage's house, and remained there 
two years. After the camp of 1880, Charles Eliot 
advised his father. President Eliot of Harvard 
College, to seek a site for a summer home some- 
where on the coast between " our camp ground 
on Somes Sound and Seal Harbor. Somewhere 
on that line you will find a site that will suit you 
— a site with beautiful views of sea and hills, 
good anchorage, fine rocks and beach and no 
flats." President and Mrs. Eliot accordingly ex- 
plored that shore, — on which at that time not a 

^ For description of the Champlaiu Society and picture of its 
camp, see Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect, pp. 25-28, and the 
Introduction of Rand and Redfield's Flora of Mount Desert. 



THE SUMMER COLONIES 339 

single summer residence had been built, — bought 
the hundred acre lot which includes the ridge of 
Asticou Hill and some other shore frontage, and 
built the house which they still occupy. In the 
same year Mr. J. H. Curtis of Boston bought 
the farm on the eastern bank of the harbor with 
the western slope of Asticou, and built a lodge 
on the hillside. It was also in the summer of 
1880 that Bishop Doane of Albany came to board 
at Squire Kimball's. " After spending August," 
he writes, " here in the most exquisite climate, 
with a delicious temperature and never a drop of 
rain or breath of fog, I was so captivated with 
the place that I bought a small bit of land." His 
house was built in the following winter and spring. 
It came about naturally that friends coming to 
visit one or another of these first summer resi- 
dents " were attracted by the beauty of the place, 
and one by one a bit of land was bought and a 
house was built by people who were all of the 
one mind, seeking real rest and the quiet, simple 
outdoor natural life which was all that the place 
then offered to any one, — because there was not 
even a hotel ; and for the purchase of the very 
smallest necessities of life, barring the httle old 
store by the harbor which had pretty much gone 
out of business, one had to go to Somesville or 
to Bar Harbor as best one could, over rough 
roads and in rickety wagons. The postal com- 
munication was twice a week, the mails being 



340 MOUNT DESERT 

brought from Somesville, and the only telegraphic 
communication could be had by rowing over to 
Southwest Harbor. I remember well, in the ear- 
lier days here, so startling a thing as the assas- 
sination of President Garfield reaching us by the 
verbal statement of the mail carrier that it was 
said that the President had been shot, and nobody 
knew whether he was killed or not ; and we could 
get no news for at least four days as to what the 
real facts of the tragedy were. The only access 
to the island at that time was by boat from Port- 
land or Rockland, the railroad not having been 
completed at all to Mount Desert Ferry, or else 
by driving, as we often did, by stage from Ban- 
gor across country here." 

" The character of this whole end of the 
island," continues Bishop Doane, " as it was 
represented by its prominent people, was very 
attractive. If there were time and room, it would 
be matter of much interest to tell of the lives of 
old Squire Kimball, of old Captain AVhittemore 
and Mr. Corson, all of them men of marked 
characteristics ; and I recall to-day with infinite 
pleasure the leisure that I had of making the 
acquaintance of those old people, representing 
the sturdiest stock of the settlers and founders 
of this characteristic bit of New England. Many 
of them had lived lives of real adventure on the 
sea in long and perilous voyages. Some of them 
had won honors in their patriotic service of their 




NORTHEAST HARBOR 




FROM SARGENT'S MOUNTAIN 



THE SUMMEE COLONIES 341 

country in the Civil War. The competency on 
which they Hved simple and unspoiled lives, of 
home comfort and neighborly companionship, was 
gained by honest toil and careful frugality. They 
were quick-witted in their intercourse with one 
another and with us, fond of dwelling upon the 
old times, and full of reminiscences of the island 
in its early condition, intelligently interested in 
public questions of the time, and with a fresh and 
original way of putting things, which gave the 
zest of real raciness to their talk. And they were 
kind and cordial in all their attitude to us who 
came from the outside. 

" There were certain difficulties and disadvan- 
tages in the remoteness of the place, but on the 
whole the life of constant contact with nature, 
untouched and unspoiled, in this marvelous at- 
mosphere, and the relations established with the 
people who lived here, more than compensated 
for whatever privations one had to bear. 

" I remember a remark made in those days by 
one of the first of the visitors from the outside 
who came here. Dr. Oilman, then president of 
Johns Hopkins University, that as he recalled 
Northeast Harbor, there were three things of 
which he always thought, — the air that he 
breathed, the views that he looked at, and the 
people that he met, and he added, in his gracious 
way, * whichever way I put them they make an 
ascending climax.' " 



342 MOUNT DESERT 

Forty years ago James Clement and his sons 
and E. T. Lynam, his brother's son-in-law, were 
the only people living at Seal Harbor. They were 
enofasred in fishing-. At Jordan's Pond two lum- 
bermen, George N. Jordan and J. S. Jordan, had 
a more or less permanent camp. A rough trail 
for hauling out logs ran from the pond to the 
beach at Seal Harbor. Communication along the 
shore was wholly by water. There were then big 
trees growing on Pemetic and Jordan's moun- 
tains, but the great forest fire of 1864 swept all 
the southern slopes of the hills, burning not only 
the standing timber but the soil as well. The 
business of the Jordans was utterly destroyed. 
It was after the fire that Daniel Brewer, who had 
taken title from the Bingham heirs to most of 
the wild land between Seal Harbor and Otter 
Creek, began to sell it off at a dollar an acre. 
John Bracy, who lived at Bracy's Cove, bought 
a considerable tract, John Smallidge another 
tract, Gideon P. Dodge bought Ox Hill, selling it 
later to James Clement, 2d, and James Clement 
bought the slopes adjoining the original Clement 
land on the eastern side of the harbor. He then 
fenced his tract and. raised sheep. His sons found 
the porgy business less and less profitable as the 
fish disappeared, and finally all agreed to try for 
summer boarders. An extra story was built on 
to the old house standing where the Seaside Inn 
now is, and " rusticators " began to discover the 



THE SUMMER COLONIES 343 

charm of this secluded cove. The first summer 
boarders were Miss Roe of Cornwall on Hudson, 
sister to E. P. Roe, the novelist, and Miss Church- 
ill of Greenwich, Conn. Then others followed, 
and in 1875 the Clements built what is now the 
western wing of the Seaside Inn. In 1883 Ly- 
nam P. Campbell built the Glen Cove Hotel and 
four years later the large Annex. The first sum- 
mer cottages were built in 1883, when Commander 
(now Admiral) Crowninshield bought of G. P. 
Dodge the " Thumbcap " at the entrance of the 
harbor and built the " Anchorage," and Mr. L. 
P. Boggs and Mr. S. P. Barr of Harrisburg, Pa., 
built on Bracy's Point. Shortly afterwards Mr. 
R. R. Thomas of Philadelphia built on the west- 
ern shore of the harbor. 

Among the earlier guests at the Glen Cove was 
Miss Mary Dows of New York (Mrs. E. K. 
Dunham). She told her family of the place, and 
her sister and brother-in-law, Mr. George B. 
Cooksey, came the next season. Mr. Cooksey 
bought of the heirs of James Clement, who died 
in the spring of 1887, the eastern point of the 
harbor, with the wharf property and Ox Hill, and 
at once began to make roads and build his house. 
It was with the money obtained from these sales 
that the Clement brothers built the present Sea- 
side Inn. In the autumn of 1891 Mr. Cooksey 
and Dr. Penrose of Philadelphia built the road 
along the eastern edge of the harbor and gave 



344 MOUNT DESERT 

it to the town, and the next year the Sea Cliff 
Drive was completed. Soon the tiers of ledges 
on the eastern side of the harbor and the slopes 
of Ox Hill were dotted with beautiful summer 
cottages, and Seal Harbor, from the little fishing 
hamlet of 1874, had become a large, prosperous 
summer resort, with many handsome houses, fine 
roads, an abundant water supply from Jordan's 
Pond, and steamboat and railroad connections.^ 

The Cranberry Isles were not resorted to by 
the summer people until the finer sites on the 
main island had been occupied. The views of 
the Mount Desert hills from Sutton's Island, 
Islesford, and the western point of Great Cran- 
berry are, however, unsurpassed, and cottage 
sites began to be sold on the islands in 1884. At 
first the " westerners " bought and made over one 
or another of the existing houses ; later houses 
specially designed for summer occupancy were 
built, and gradually a dozen or more pleasant 
cottages lined the northeastern shore of Little 
Cranberry and the northwestern point of Sutton's 
Island. The Islesford Hotel was built in 1887 
under the management of Loring A. Stanley, and 
became the centre of the summer life on Little 
Cranberry, which has the charm of refined sim- 
plicity of comparative isolation, and of un- 
equaled outlook. 

1 Mr. Charles H. Clement has kindly furnished some of the 
facts included in this account of the development of Seal 
Harbor. 



THE SUMMER COLONIES 345 

The smaller summer colonies at Somesville, 



Hull's Cove, and Schooner Head have each a 
distinctive life, though the two latter depend on 
Bar Harbor for markets and for all steamboat 
and railroad connections. At Somesville a few 
small hotels do business, while Hull's Cove and 
Schooner Head are exclusively cottage settle- 
ments and really continuations of Bar Harbor to 
the north and south respectively. 

The future of Mount Desert as a summer re- 
sort is largely dependent upon the judgment and 
taste of the permanent residents. The charm of 
the place can easily be impaired, and its charac- 
teristic life is subject to perils that may readily 
become threatening. The complete occupation 
of the shores by private owners, the introduction 
of electric railroads or of automobiles, the reck- 
less cutting off of the woods, the disfigurement 
of the roadsides by telegi-aph poles or ugly scars 
or by piles of rubbish, the multiplication of the 
city sights and sounds that the summer people 
come to Mount Desert to escape, are all to be 
avoided. The forests should be protected from 
the ravages of fires by the provision of suit- 
able fire guards and improved by the removal 
of dead wood and deformed trees. The roads 
should be kept reasonably narrow, and the beauty 
of the bordering woods carefully preserved. The 
footpaths should be kept narrow, rough, and wild. 
Convenient landing-places should be provided 



346 MOUNT DESERT 

for public use, and as far as possible access to 
the shore and to the desirable points of view 
should be open to all. 

" The whole island," says a pioneer cottager,^ 
" ought to be treated by every resident and by 
the body of voters as if it were a public park ; 
that is, the beauty and convenience of the place 
as a health and pleasure resort ought to be kept 
constantly in mind to guide the policy of the 
towns and the habit and customs of the popula- 
tion. . . . What needs to be forever excluded 
from the island is the squalor of the city, with 
all its inevitable bustle, dirt, and ugliness. Not 
even the appropriate pleasures and splendors of 
city life should be imitated at Mount Desert. It 
is to escape the sights and sounds of the city 
that intelhgent people come in summer to such 
a place as this rough and beautiful island ; and 
the short-season populations do not wish to be re- 
minded in summer of the scenes and noises amid 
which the greater part of their lives is inevitably 



To the beauty of the landscape and the tonic 
of the air the romance of the island's historic 
past described in this book may add human inter- 
est and poetic charm. 

1 Charles W. Eliot, The Right Development of Mount Desert, 
1904. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

Thk notes appended to each chapter of this book give the 
references to the sources of information, but some general 
account of the books that have been written about Mount 
Desert may well be given here. 

The original writings from which are derived our know- 
ledge of the early history of the island are available in 
French and English editions. First in order and in impor- 
tance stands the Journal of Champlain's Voyages, which was 
first published in Paris in 1613. The best French edition 
is that published at Quebec in 1870, by I'Abb^ Laverdibre 
— a monumental work of Canadian scholarship. The stand- 
ard English edition of this fascinating record of sturdy and 
modest heroism was published by the Prince Society of Bos- 
ton in 1880. The first volume, with a translation of the 
narrative by Dr. Charles Pomeroy Otis and a Memoir of 
Champlain by the Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, contains the 
account of the preliminary voyage of 1603. The second 
volume contains the journal of the coastwise expedition of 
1604, the discovery and naming of Mount Desert, and the 
story of the fortunes of the Saint Croix colony. Both 
volumes are illustrated with maps and portraits. Other 
translations or extracts can be found in the Collections of 
the Maine Historical Society, vii, 343 (paper by John 
Marshall Brown) ; in the Bangor Historical Magazine, 
ii, 229 ; in Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of 
America, iv, 103, 143, 149 ; viii, 429 ; in Willis's Early 
Collections of Voyages to America (New England Histor- 
ical and Genealogical Register, xv) ; and in the Lives of 
Champlain already noted. 



350 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

The narrative of Father Pierre Biard, Relation de la 
Nouvelle France, de ses terres, naturel du pays et de ses 
habitans, item Du Voyage des Phres Jesuites aux dictes 
contrees, et qu'ils yont jusque a leur prinse par les Anglais, 
was published at Lyons in 1616, and is the chief source 
of our knowledge of the Saint Sauveur colony and its fate. 
This narrative is reprinted in the first volume of the Rela- 
tions des Jesuites, issued by the Canadian government in 
1888, and also in the superb edition of the Relations pub- 
lished under the editorship of Reuben Gold Thwaites in 
1896-1901. A translation of the more important chapters 
is also given in Alexander Brown's Genesis of the United 
States (1890), ii, 709-725, in the books by Dr. DeCosta 
hereafter noted, and in the Collections of the Maine His- 
torical Society, viii, 323. A letter written by Father Biard 
to Father Claude Acquaviva, General of the Society of 
Jesus, in 1614, giving an account of the destruction of Saint 
Sauveur, was printed in Caryon's Premiere Missioyi des 
tTesuites an Canada (1864). A translation of this letter by 
Prof. F. M. Warren, with an introduction by John Mar- 
shall Brown, is presented in the Collections of the Maine 
Historical Society, second series, ii, 411. See also the paper 
by Mr. Enoch Lewis in Maine Historical Collections, i, 
428. Further original information about Saint Sauveur is 
contained in the letter addressed in 1613 by Henri de Mont- 
morenci to James I of England. This letter of protest is 
printed in the Proceedings of the MassacMisetts Historical 
Society, ii, 187, and in Alexander Brown's Genesis of the 
United States. The story of the destruction of Saint Sau- 
veur from the English point of view is told in Raphe Ha- 
mor's A True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia, 
printed in London in 1615. See also Collections of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society, fourth series, ix, 42 and 
note 498, the Collections of the New York Historical So- 
ciety, second series, i, 333-342, and Jeremy Belknap's Life 
of Argall in American Biography, vol. ii. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 351 

Invaluable sidelights upon the adventures of the French 
explorers and colonists are given in Marc Lescarbot's im- 
mortal Hist ire de la Nouvelle France, which vpas first 
printed in Paris in 1609, issued in a quaint English trans- 
lation by Pierre Erondelle in the same year, and has since 
gone through many editions. The translation by Erondelle 
is given, abbreviated in Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. iv, and in 
full in Churchill's Collection of Voyages, vol. viii. For the 
account of the different editions of Lescarbot see the Amer- 
ican Historical Revieiv, vi, 67. The story is again told in 
the famous history of New France written by Pierre Francois 
Xavier de Charlevoix, first published in 1744. The standard 
English edition of this great work, edited by John Gihnary 
Shea and illustrated with maps and plates, was completed 
in 1872 and issued in six volumes. The account of Saint 
Sauveur occurs in i, 27, 51, 270-280. Further historical 
references are given in Winsor's Narrative and Critical 
History of America, iv, 103, 149 ; viii, 429. See also Sul- 
livan's History of Maine (1795), Williamson's History of 
3faine (1832), the standard Histories of Nova Scotia by 
T. C. Haliburton and Beamish Murdock, both of which con- 
tain accounts of the Saint Croix and Saint Sauveur colonies, 
and John G. Shea's The Catholic Church in Colonial Days, 
p. 220. 

Accounts of the Sieur de la Mothe Cadillac and his con- 
nection with Mount Desert can be found in the Collections of 
the Maine Historical Society, vi, 273, the New York Colo- 
nial Documents, ix, 671, the Historical Magazine, iv, 340. 

The diary of Governor Bernard's voyage and the story 
of his projects are to be found in the collection of Sparks's 
Manuscripts deposited in the Library of Harvard College. 
Extracts are printed in the Bangor Historical Magazine, 
i, 179 ; ii, 185 ; v, 30 ; and in Dr. Lapham's Guidebook. 

The later history has been derived from the town and 
church records, and from the genealogies and traditions of 
the older family stocks on the island. 



352 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

The wonder of the story told by the earlier annalists was 
revealed to the English-speaking world by the greatest of 
American historians. Parkman's Pioneers of France in 
the New World, the first of the series of volumes that tell 
with matchless force and beauty the thrilling story of New 
France and New England, was published in 1865. Francis 
Parkman was a tireless and incomparable investigator of 
the original sources of information, and a master of the 
purest English style. He believed that color and beauty are 
not merely the decoration of historical writing but an essen- 
tial part of history, and therefore his narrative, while accu- 
rate and impartial, has all the fascination of romance. He 
was at once a naturalist, philosopher, artist, and, in no small 
measure, a poet. Never have the characteristics of the iron- 
bound and fir-clad coast been more accurately and charm- 
ingly depicted. His descriptions of Champlain and of the 
achievements, hopes, and failures of the French adventurers 
are extraordinarily picturesque, true to life but glowing with 
color. His narrative of the events associated with the early 
history of Mount Desert is necessarily brief, as these events 
made but a short scene of the great drama of New France, 
but the outline of the story is complete, and the later histo- 
rian cannot hope to do more than fill out the picture sketched 
by a great master's hand. 

The long array of books and articles that deal primarily 
with the island's story begins with the coming of the sum- 
mer visitors. 

In 1867 the Rev. Benjamin F. DeCosta wrote, in the 
form of letters for the press, the record of a journey in the 
previous summer along the coast of Maine. These letters 
were published in a limited edition in 1868, then added to 
and finally published in 1871 by A. D. F. Randolph & Co. 
with the title Rambles in Mojint Desert, with Sketches of 
Travel on the Neiv England Coast} In this narrative Dr. 

1 Dr. DeCosta was born in Boston in 1831, graduated at the College 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 353 

DeCosta incorporated a considerable part of Pfere Biard's 
story of the Jesuit settlement and not a little of the legend- 
ary lore about the island. This book and the author's later 
Handbook of Mount Desert (1878) were for many years 
the best known descriptions of Mount Desert. 

In 1886, Dr. E. B. Lapham, of Augusta, wrote a histor- 
ical sketch of the island in connection with his Guidebook 
to Bar Harbor and Moicnt Desert Island. This was re- 
vised two years later, as in the interval Dr. Lapham had 
become better acquainted with the sources of historical in- 
formation discovered by Parkman and by the editors and 
publishers of the Jesuit Relations, and forms the first com- 
plete though very brief narrative of the island history.^ 

of William and Mary, and then spent several years in Europe as a 
student of early American history. In 1857 he was ordained to the 
ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and served as rector of 
churches in North Adams and Newton, Mass. In the Civil War he 
was chaplain of the ISth Massachusetts Regiment, and later was em- 
ployed as editor of several religious periodicals. For two years he 
was editor of the Magazine of American History. In 1881 Dr. De- 
Costa became the rector of the Church of St. John the Evangelist in 
New York, where he continued until in 1899 he renounced the Episco- 
pal ministry and was received into the Roman Catholic Church. Upon 
the death of Mrs. DeCosta he went to Rome to prepare himself for 
the priesthood and was ordained in 1903. He died in New York 
November 4, 1904. Dr. DeCosta was a fluent and versatile writer, 
and was the author of some thirty volumes, including religious and 
historical works, fiction, and poems. He was an indefatigable inves- 
tigator of antiquarian problems, and, if his judgment was sometimes 
unreliable, his industry was invaluable in discovering sources of infor- 
mation and tracing forgotten paths. 

1 Dr. Lapham was born in Greenwood, Maine, August 21, 1828. 
He studied at Colby, attending medical lectures at Brunswick, and 
finishing his course in New York in 1856. He then began the practice 
of medicine at Bryant's Pond, and continued there until the war. He 
entered the United States service on September 18, 1862, as commis- 
sary sergeant in the 23d Maine Regiment. He won steady promotion 
in this regiment and in the 7th Maine Battery, to which he was 
afterwards transferred, and was mustered out October 30, 1865, as 
brevet major of volunteers. He then returned to the practice of his 



354 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

Three natives of the island have made valuable contribu- 
tions to the local history. The first of these was Ezra A. 
Dodge, who was born at Mount Desert, June 15, 1847. 
When not quite fifteen years old he enlisted in the army as 
a member of Company G, First Regiment Heavy Artillery, 
February 23, 1863. He was wounded in the Wilderness, 
promoted September 1, 18G5, and mustered out on the 11th 
of the same month. He then attended school at Dean 
Academy, Franklin, Mass., and returned to the island a 
sufferer from malaria contracted in the army. As his health 
allowed, he began to contribute to newspapers, and was a 
regular correspondent of the Ellsworth American and Bar 
Harbor Herald. His little History of 3ft. Desert was is- 
sued in pamphlet form in Ellsworth by N. K. Sawyer, in 
1871, and afterwards as a guidebook by Brown Thurston 
in Portland. His historical account deals chiefly with the 
permanent settlement of the island and is drawn mostly 
from facts gleaned from old settlers. Mr. Dodge died at 
Bass Harbor, October 24, 1881, at the age of thirty-four. 

Another eager student of local history was the Rev. 
Oliver H. Fern aid, who was born at Southwest Harbor, 
January 19, 1835, the son of John and Sophronia Wasgatt 
Fernald, and the second of eight children. He was fitted 
for college at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, graduated 
at Wesleyan University in 1863, and was successively a 

profession at Bryant's Pond and served in the state legislature, as 
postmaster, as school officer, and as a commander of the Grand Army 
posts both at Bryant's Pond and at Augusta. In 1871 he withdrew 
from the practice of medicine and became one of the editors of the 
Maine Farmer, with which he was connected for eleven years. In 1884 
he resigned this editorship to devote all his time to historical studies, 
which had long been his avocation. He became a member of the 
Maine Historical Society in 1882, and was also a member of most of 
the historical and genealogical societies of New England. He was a 
ready and fertile writer. He compiled histories of Woodstock, Paris, 
Norway, Bethel, Rumford, Hallowell, Maine, and, as editor of the 
Maine Genealogist and Biographer, compiled many family genealogies- 
He died at Augusta, February 22, 1894. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 355 

teaclier at Providence, R. I., and a pastor in a number of 
New England towns and cities. In 1885 he was trans- 
ferred to the East Maine Conference, and was for three 
years pastor in his native town. In 1900, on account of 
failing health, he retired and lived at his home on Fernald's 
Point, the site of the Jesuit colony, until his death, July 
23, 1903. In his later years he was an indefatigable gath- 
erer of facts relating to the island history, and portions of 
the material he obtained have been published from time to 
time. His manuscript notes contain many interesting ac- 
counts of the life of the early settlers on the island. 

Mr. Eben M. Hamor has contributed in no small degree 
to our knowledge of the island history and to the making of 
this book. He was born at Eden, March 26, 1822, son of 
William and Experience Hamor, grandson of David and 
Experience Hamor, and great-grandson of John and Mary 
Rodick Hamor, who were the first settlers at Hull's Cove. 
Mr. Hamor was for twenty-four years a teacher in the 
island schools, eleven years in one district and nine years 
in another. In 1866 he and his brother Jonathan opened a 
store at Somesville and later moved it to its present location 
at "West Eden, where Mr. Hamor has been postmaster for 
twenty-five years. He was for many years the only land 
surveyor in Eden, and almost all the deeds of the present 
owners of real estate in the town are drawn in accordance 
with his surveys. He has served the town of Eden as su- 
perintendent of schools, treasurer, selectman, assessor, 
representative and senator in the state legislature. He has 
been a frequent contributor to newspapers and periodicals 
on subjects connected with the town and family history. 
His address at the Centennial Celebration at Bar Harbor in 
1895 and several manuscript volumes contain the records 
of his researches. 

Mrs. Clara Barnes Martin was the first to write a guide- 
book. Her Mount Desert, a descriptive pamphlet of thirty- 
six pages, was issued by Brown Thurston & Co., at Port- 



356 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

land, in 1867. It passed into the hands of Loring, Short 
& Harmon of Portland and went through six editions, con- 
stantly increasing in size and becoming embellished with 
photographs and maps. There followed the books of De- 
Costa, Dodge, and Lapham, which have been already noted, 
and which were primarily guidebooks containing historical 
matter. A number of similar books or souvenirs have since 
been issued by the transijortation companies or by enterpris- 
ing publishers such as that edited by Mr. 0. F. R. Waite, 
Guide Book for the Eastern Coast of New England, Lee 
& Shepard, 1871, or Chisholm's Mount Desert Guide Book, 
written by Mr. M. F. Sweetser, or Picturesque Maine, by 
the same writer, or Summer Resorts in Maine, by Mr. 
George H. Haynes, and finally the invaluable Baedeker, 
edited by Mr. J. H. Muirhead and published in 1893. 

Magazine articles dealing with the island have been nu- 
merous, such as George Wood Nichols' Mount Desert, in 
Harper's Magazine, xiv, 322 (1872), W. H. Bishop's Fish 
and Men in the Maine Islands, in Harper's Magazine 
(1880), From Mission Peak to Mount Desert, in Overland 
Monthly (1884), Robert Grant's A Plea for Bar Harbor, 
in Outing, vi, 515 (1885), Henry W. Rugg's Vacation Ex- 
perience, in Freemason's Repository, xiii, 468 (1884), J. 
Arbuckle, A Temperate Experience on Mount Desert, Lip- 
pincott's Magazine, xiv, 250 (1882). An article on The 
RoTnance of Mount Desert, written by the editor of this 
volume and contributed to the New England Magazine for 
August, 1898, is incorporated in the present narrative. 

The nine volumes of the Bangor Historical Magazine, 
conducted under the industrious and accomplished editor- 
ship of Mr. J. W. Porter, contain scattered articles describ- 
ing events in the island's history, translations of original 
documents, genealogical notes, town records, and other ma- 
terial of which frequent use has been made in this book. 

Interesting notes of visits to Mount Desert are contained 
in Bryant's Picturesque America, published in 1872, and 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 357 

Samuel Adams Drake's Nooks and Corners of the New 
England Coast (1875), The Making of Neiv England 
(1888), The Pine Tree Coast (1891), Mrs. E. B. Chase's 
Over the Border (1889), Joel Cook's An Eastern Tour at 
Home (1889), Charles Dudley Warner's Their Pilgrimage 
(1887), Mary Crowninshield's All among the Lighthouses, 
Boston (1886). 

In President Charles W. Eliot's volume on American 
Contributions to Civilization is contained an article on the 
Forgotten Millions, originally printed in the Century Mag- 
azi?ie, and containing the record of a thorough study of 
social conditions in the town of Mount Desert in 1880. The 
same writer's John Gilley, Boston, 1904, gives the true 
story of one of the hardy pioneers and of the conditions of 
family life on the island in the nineteenth century. 

Of fugitive verses about Mount Desert there is ample 
store of varying merit. The best are John Weiss's two po- 
ems. Great Head and Green Mountain, first printed in Old 
and New, in 1873, and later in Mr. Longfellow's collection 
of Poems of Places, Mrs. F. L. Mace's Midsummer on 
Mount Desert, printed with illustrations in Harper'' s Maga- 
zine, Ixxi, 181 (1885), Rev. W. R. Huntington's sonnets 
From Green Mountain and The White Squadron, in Son- 
nets and a Dream, New York, 1904, and the poems of 
Mrs. Annie Sawyer Downs of Andover, long a summer 
resident at Southwest Harbor. 

The novels and short stories which make Mount Desert 
the scene of imaginary adventures, and which often contain 
excellent descriptions of the scenery and the life of the sum- 
mer visitors, are numerous. Among them may be mentioned 
Miss Woolsey's (Susan Coolidge) For Sum,mer Afternoons 
(1876), Oxygen : a Mount Desert Pastoral, by Robert 
Grant (1879), Golden Rod : an Idyl of Mount Desert, by 
Constance C. Harrison (1879), and Bar Harbor Days, by 
the same author (1887), Anna Blake's A 3Iidsummer 
Nighfs Adventure, in Harper's Magazine, Lxi, 617 (1880), 



358 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

Arthur Svrazey's A Boston Girl (1886), Mary G. Darling's 
Gladi/s (1887), A. A. Hayes' The Jesicifs Ring (1887), 
Alsop Leffingwell's The Mystery of Bar Harbor (1887), F. 
W. Pearson's An Idyl of Bar Harbor (1888), G. E. Goo- 
gin's Strange Adveiitures of a Summer Tourist (1891), F. 
Marion Crawford's Love in Idleness : a Tale of Bar Har- 
bor (1894). 

Books primarily of illustrations, photographs, or sketches 
have been prepared by John A. Mitchell : The Summer 
School of Philosophy (1881), Henry G. Peabody's The 
Coast of Maine (art. on Mount Desert, by Susan Coolidge), 
Louis K. Harlow's Picturesque Coast of Netc England 
(1887), and With Pen and Pencil at Mount Desert, by 
L. W. B. (1886), with many illustrated souvenirs and albums 
of characteristic views. 

The maps begin with the series of Charts of the Coast 
and Harbours of New England, composed and engraved 
by Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres,for the use of His 
Majesty's shij)S in North America, from surveys taken 
under the direction of the Lords of Trade. These charts 
were apparently published in Halifax in 1777, " in conse- 
quence of an application of the Right Honorable Lord 
Viscount Howe, Commander-in-Chief." Four years later 
another series containing many harbor charts was issued 
" under the direction of the Right Honorable the Lords 
Commissioners of the Admiralty. There were also " com- 
posed" by Des Barres, who is called "Surveyor of the 
Coast and harbours of North America," with four assistants 
who are named in the title of the " Atlantic Neptune," which 
was the name given to the second series. 

In 1789 John Peters made a survey of lots on the De 
Gregoire grant which is described in the Bangor Hist. Mag. 
V, 30. Mr. E. A. Dodge published a map in 1872, and the 
Boston and Maine Railroad in 1880. Samuel Wasson's Sur- 
veys of Hancock County were published in Augusta in 1878. 
The United States Coast Survey Chart of the island was 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 359 

issued in 1882, and the t!!oast Chart, which includes the island, 
in 1883. A Harbor Chart of Bar Harbor followed in 1885. 
Colby & Stuart issued a land map of the island in 1887. 
Many maps are issued by the transportation companies 
and the land companies, and are contained in the guide- 
books, but most of them are very inaccurate. Lists and 
references can be found in the Bibliography of the Maps of 
Maine, printed in E. C. Smith's Moses Greenleaf, Maine's 
First Ma]} Maker, Bangor, 1902. The standard map is that 
prepared for the Flora of Mount Desert by Charles Eliot 
and E. L. Rand, and first published in 1893. It is based on 
the Coast Survey Chart, but the new roads, the town bound- 
aries, and additional wood roads and paths have been de- 
lineated, the post-offices indicated, the nomenclature made 
accurate, and many names never before placed on a map 
presented. It is the result of very careful studies, and has 
been revised by Messrs. Rand, Waldron Bates, and Herbert 
Jacques, and kept up to date in successive editions. In 1904 
the admirable maps of the United States Geological Survey 
covering the island were published. 

The scientific exploration of the island has been very 
thorough. In 1837 Prof. Charles T. Jackson's Report on the 
Geology of Maine began the series of monographs on the 
rock formations. Prof. Charles H. Hitchcock, State Geolo- 
gist, published the results of his study of the island in 1862, 
and Prof. Louis Agassiz gave particular attention to the 
glacial phenomena when visiting the island in 1864. He pub- 
lished the record of his observations in the Atlantic Monthly 
for February and March, 1867. The geological series is con- 
tinued in Prof. N. S. Shaler's Report on the Recent Changes 
of Line on the Coast of Maine, in Boston Society of Natural 
History Memoirs, ii, 321 (1871-78), and his Geology of the 
Island of Mount Desert, published in 1889 in the Eighth 
Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 
with a large geological map of the island, a map of the 
quartenary deposits, eleven full-page plates of scenery, and 



360 BIBLIOGKAPHICAL NOTES 

twenty-three smaller diagrams and illustrations. The topo- 
graphy is best described by Charles Eliot in Garden and 
Forest, iii, 86 (1890), and the woods by Edward L. Rand, 
in Garden and Forest, ii, 483. In 1894 Edward L. Rand 
and John H. Redfield published the Flora of Mount Desert, 
containing an admirable catalogue of the plants growing on 
the island. The volume also contains an invaluable Outline 
of the Geology of Mount Desert, by Prof. WilHam Morris 
Davis, and an Introduction to the Flora, by Mr, Rand. In 
1904 Dwight Blaney published, in the Proceedings of the 
Boston Society of Natural History (vol. xxxii), a List of 
the Shell-Bearing Mollusca of Frenchman's Bay. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Abenaki, the, accounts of, 61, 
62 ; method of agriculture, 63 ; 
their habits, 64 ; their numbers, 
67 ; their wars, 68, 70 ; disap- 
pearance of, 99. See Indians. 

Adams, John, quoted, 186. 

Andros, Sir Edmund, account of, 
78 ; destroys Pentagoet, 79 ; his 
census, 79. 

Argall, Sir Samuel, commands 
ship Treasurer, 43 ; attacks St. 
Sauveur, 4.5; his history and 
character, 46-48; his commis- 
sion, 49; destroys French set- 
tlements, 53; member of New 
England Council, 60 ; accounts 
of, 350. 

Artists at Mount Desert, 325. 

Asticou, Indian chief, 41 ; the 
use of his name, 66. 

Atherton, Benjamin, 192. 
Benjamin, Jr., 225. 

Bailey, Rev. Rufus, 247, 258. 

Baker's Island, 196, 286-295. 

Baptist churches, 237-247, 268- 
271. 

Bar Harbor, landfall of the Jesuit 
colony, 41 ; settlers at, 154, 158, 
196 ; churches at, 252-261 ; de- 
velopment of, 333-337. 

Bartlett, Christopher, 170, 193. 
David, 192, 194. 
Elias, 193. 
Israel, 192. 

Bartlett's Island, 170, 196, 203. 

Bass Harbor, report on, 121 ; set- 
tlers at, 146, 150, 196 ; marshes 
at, 176; roads to, 179, 307; 
school at, 203 • town meeting 
at, 224. 

Bear Island, 196, 219, 220. 

Beech Hill, settlers on, 149 ; pound 
at, 199 ; school for, 203 ; church 
at, 247 ; people on, 305. 



Bennet, Nathaniel, 192. 

Benson, Benjamin, 151. 

Benjamin, Jr., 225. 

Bernard, Sir Francis, account of, 
104 ; his grant of Mount Desert, 
105 ; his visit to Mount Desert, 
107-113; his plans, 115-117; 
his appeal, 118 ; petition to, 
140 ; his recall, 123 ; his death, 
125 ; references for, 351. 

Bernard, Sir .John, his inheritance, 
125; at Pleasant Point, 126; 
his petition, 126 ; his grant, 127 ; 
his history, 128 ; his estate, 132. 

Biard, Pierre, Jesuit priest, named 
for mission in New France, 35 ; 
arrives at Port Royal, 37 ; his 
voyage with Biencourt, 37 ; his 
account of St. Sauveur, 39-42 ; 
carried to Jamestown, 52 ; his 
return to New France, 53 ; his 
return to France, 64 ; his death, 
54 ; his relation and letters, 350. 

Biencourt, Jean de, carries Jesuits 
to Port Royal, 37 ; explores 
coast with Biard, .37 ; driven 
from Port Royal, 53. 

Bingham, William, his purchase, 
133 ; his heirs, 134, 135 ; refer- 
ences to his estate, 149, 284, 
342. 

Black, Josiah, 159, 173, 174, 178. 

Books about Mount Desert, 349- 
360. 

Bowden, Samuel, 150, 193. 

Bracy, John, 284, 342. 

Brewer, Edward, 302. 
Daniel, 342. 

Bridges, 202, 207, 210, 317. 

Bunker, Aaron, 219. 
Isaac, 170, 173. 
Silas, 178. 

BurriU, James, 169, 174, 178. 

Butler, George, 150, 193. 

Rev. Thomas F., 257. 



364 



INDEX 



Cadillac, Antoine de la Mothe, his 
g^ant and settlement at Mount 
Desert, 80; account of, 81 ; his 
description of the coast, 82 ; his 
history and character, 84, 85 ; 
his grandchildren, 84 ; refer- 
ences to, 85, 351. See Gregoire. 

Campbell, Alexander, 172. 
James, 212. 
Lyman P., 343. 

Carter, Robert, his visit to Mount 
Desert, 323, 324, 333. 

Cartier, Jacques, his voyage, 5, 
13. 

Cary, Rev. Calvin L., 268, 271. 

Castin, Baron de Saint, his his- 
tory, (58 ; his post at Pentagoet, 
71, 76 ; his fort pillaged by An- 
dros, 78 ; his letter intercepted, 
90 ; his daughter captured, 92 ; 
his son's prophecy, 70. 

Catholic churches, 257, 258. 

Chadwick, Joseph, commissioned 
agent of Governor Bernard, 
120 ; his survey and description 
of Mount Desert, 121. 

Champlain, Samuel de, accompa- 
nies De Monts, 17 ; his charac- 
ter, 17 ; his early adventures, 
18 ; made royal geographer, 20 ; 
explores the St. Lawrence, 21 ; 
names Mount Desert, 23 ; his 
voyage of 1604, 24 ; his voyage 
of 1605, 26 ; his later history, 
28; at Quebec, 38; his books 
and writings, 20, 21, 349 ; lives 
of, 28, 349. 

Charlevoix, Pierre F. X. de, 351. 

Chastes, Aymar de, 13. 

Chauvin, Pierre, attempts to colo- 
nize America, 12, 13, 16. 

Church, Col. Benjamin, his history, 
87 ; his expeditions against the 
eastern Indians, 88-94 ; his visits 
to Mount Desert, 90, 93, 94. 

Churches at Mount Desert, 231. 

Clark, Bishop Davis Wasgatt, 247, 
259, 260, 296, 305. 
Henry H.,225,295-300,306. 
Capt. Nathan, 217, 306. 
Eaton, 225, 306. 
Seth H., 224, 306. 

Clark's Point, 216, 234, 295, 298. 



Clement, Amos, 284, 285. 

Charles H., 286, 344. 
Jacob, 284, 285, 286. 
James, 284, 285, 286, 342. 
John, 283. 
Cobb, Gen. David, 149. 
Cobbett, Thomas, Jr., Indian cap- 
tive at Mount Desert, 73 ; story 
of his captivity, 74-78. 
Cockle, James, 116, 149, 175. 
Congregational churches, 231-234, 

263-268, 277, 278. 
Cooksey, George B., 343. 
Cousins, Elisha, 154, 174, 175, 178, 
192, 199, 200, 200, 209, 
211, 301. 
John, 192. 
Nahura, 301. 

genealogy on, 154. 
Cranberry, Great and Little, the 
islands, mentioned in Governor 
Bernard's journal, 109 ; settlers 
on, 147, 170, 219 ; school for, 
203 ; churches on, 201-264 ; 
development of, 344. 
Cranberry Isles, the town of, or- 
ganized, 219. 
Crawford, F. Marion, quoted, 334. 
Croix, Saint, the colony ; settle- 
ment at, 22 ; accounts of, 22 ; 
abandoned, 28 ; histories of, 29 ; 
destroyed by Argall, 53. 

the river, 0, 22, 79, 103. 
Cromwell's Harbor, report on, 122 ; 

settlers at, 169 ; mill at, 208. 
Curtis, Joseph H., 60, 339. 

Dale, Sir Thomas, governor of 

Virginia, 43, 53. 
Davie, Rev. Charles N._, 264. 
DeCosta, Dr. Benjamin F., his 

books, 352 ; his history, 352. 
Deering, Capt. Charles, 335. 
Dieppe, port of, 6. 
Doane, Bishop William Croswell, 
273, 339; quoted, 339- 
341. 
Margaret H., 273, 274. 
Jonathan, 212. 
Dodge, Ezra A., 218, 308, 354. 
Ezra H., 150, 192, 234. 
Gideon P., 342. 
John S., 223. 



INDEX 



365 



Dolliver, Peter, 150, 193. 

John, 225. 
Downs, Rev. Benjamin, 236. 
Duck Brook, report on, 121 ; set- 
tlers at, 157 ; mill at, 208. 
Dunham, Mrs. Edward K., 343. 
Durgau, Horace, 225, 306. 

Eaton, Amos, 193. ^ 
Joshua, 224.<r 
Rev. Ebenezer, first minis- 
ter at Mount Desert, 150, 
233, 234. 
Eden, the town, incorporated, 204 ; 
first meeting of, 206 ; proceed- 
ings of, 207-210. 
Eliot, Charles, 338. 

Charles W-, quoted, 286- 
295, 312-320, 338, 346. 
Episcopalian churches, 254-257, 
273-276. 

Farrell, Faranton S., 193. 
Fernald, A. C, 311. 

Charles H., 146. 

Eben, 224. 

Oliver H., 139, 146, 263, 

354. 
Tobias, 145, 193. 
Fernald's Point, Jesuit colony at, 
42-51 ; described by Biard, 42 ; 
settlers at, 145. 
Fiske, John, quoted, 17, 52. 
Flora of Mount Desert, 360. 
Flory, Charles, captain of ship 
Jonas, 38 ; his conduct at St. 
Sauveur, 44 ; his ship restored, 
55 
Fowler, Rev. LeBaron W., 276. 
Freeman, George, 150, 193, 270. 
James, 224, 306. 
Reuben, 150, 193. 
Reuben, Jr., 192. 

Ganong, Prof. W. F., account of 

St. Croix, 22, 29. 
Geology of Mount Desert, refer- 
ences for, 359, 360. 
Gilloy, Benjamin, 225. 
John, 295, 357. 
William, 150, 193, 286-295. 
Gilman, Daniel C, quoted, 341. 
GUpatrick, Samuel N., 276, 337. 



Godkin, Edwin L., quoted, 330. 

Goldthwait, Col. Thomas, 141, 147, 
148. 

Goose Cove, Indian village at, 66 ; 
settlers at, 150 ; school for, 203. 

Gott, Daniel, 142, 146, 178. 
Daniel, Jr., 142, 193. 
John M., 225. 
Joseph, 193, 225. 
Peter, 192, 201. 

Gott's Island, settlers on, 146; 
school for, 203 ; annexed to 
Tremont, 224 ; church at, 245. 

Grand Design, the shipwreck of, 
96 ; fate of passengers and crew, 
97, 98. 

Great Head, 41. 

Gregoire, Bartholemy de, and 

Gregoire, Marie Therese de, mar- 
riage, 84 ; their claim to Mount 
Desert, 128; their grant, 129; 
their estate, 133 ; their life at 
Hull's Cove, 135 ; their deaths, 
136. 

Grew, William, 150. 

Guercheville, Mde. de, supports 
Jesuit missions, 35 ; buys De 
Monts' patent, 36 ; sends out 
Jesuit colony, 38; her ship re- 
stored, 57. 

Guidebooks for Mount Desert, re- 
ferences to, 355, 356. 

Guptill, Wilson, 224, 225. 

Gurley, Royal, 135. 

Hadley, Samuel, 159. 

Simeon, 159, 174, 178, 192 ; 

genealogy on, 159, 160. 
Hadlock, Edwin, 221. 
Edwin H., 1.S9. 
Gilbert T., 222. 
Harvey D., 223. 
Jonathan, 193. 
Samuel, 170, 193. 
Samuel, Jr., 171, 208, 219, 

220, 283. 
William E., 218, 221, 222. 
Hamor, Daniel, 209. 

David, 151, 192, 194, 201, 

206, 208, 236, 242. 
Eben M., 139, 237, 300- 

307, 311, 355. 
James, 333. 



366 



INDEX 



Hamor, John, 150, 153, 178, 192. 

genealogy on, 150-153. 
Hardy, Alpheus, 277. • 
Harmon, George, 193. 
Harper, Alfred, 224. 

Samuel, 225. 
Harwood, Rev. Charles E., 264. 
Haynes, Ephraim, 212. 
Heath, Richard, 193. 

William, 150, 192. 
William 2d, 225, 305. 
Hemenway, Rev. Miles, 275. 
Henry of Navarre, 4, 6, 11, 12, 13, 

35. 
Iliggins, David, 168, 193. 
David, Jr., 193. 
Eleazar, 192, 242, 302. 
Elkanah, 155, 238. 
Israel, 150, 174, 192, 194, 

206, 208, 212. 
Israel, Jr., 192. 
Jesse, 168, 192, 194. 
Levi, 155, 173, 175, 178, 
192, 194, 199, 206, 212, 
236, 237. 
Moses, 242. 
Nehemiah, 155, 207. 
Solomon, 156, 193, 206. 
Stephen, 333, 335. 

genealogies on, 155, 156, 
168, 169. 
Hodgdon, Joseph, 192. 
Honfleur, port of, 6, 38. 
Hopkins, Anderson, 210. 
David, 225. 
Joseph, 165, 192. 
Seth, 242. 

genealogy on, 165. 
Huhbard, Rev. William, quoted, 

72, 73-78. 
Hull, Capt. Samuel, 136, 164, 193, 

205, 206, 208, 209. 
Hull's Cove, Indian village at, 66 ; 
settlers at, 152, 159, 164 ; named, 
164 ; landings at, 179 ; pound 
at, 199 ; meeting at, 205 ; mill 
at, 208 ; churches at, 236, 237, 
256, 257 ; development of, 345. 
Ilimting, Rev. Enoch, 239. 

Iberville, Sieur d', commands 
French expeditions at Mount 
Desert, 85, 86, 90 ; his history, 85. 



Indians, the, 8, 22, 24, 37, 41, 61, 
70, 74. See Abenaki. 

Jamestown, 3, 38, 43, 53. 

Jefferson, Thomas, quoted, 187. 

Jesuits, the, 8, 35, 54, 67. See 
Sauveur, Saint. 

Jonas, the ship, arrives at Port 
Royal, 33 ; carries Jesuit colony, 
38 ; captured by Argall, 45 ; 
carried to Virginia, 52 ; returns 
to Port Royal, 53 ; carried to 
England and restored, 54. 

Jones, Col. Nathan, accompanies 
Governor Bernard to Mount 
Desert, 107, 109 ; his surveys, 
110, 111 ; Chadwick's report on, 
122 ; commissioned to divide 
Mount Desert, 131 ; his letter 
to Governor Bernard, 147; his 
history, 148. 

Jones, Stephen, commissioner at 
Mount Desert, 130 ; his history, 
131. 

Jordan, Bither, 193. 
George N., 342. 

Jordan's Pond, .342. 

Kennebec, the river, 25, 26, 37, 

66, 95. 
Kimball, Daniel, 273, 308, 339, 
340. 
Emma Esther, 274. 
King, Capt. David, 306. 

William, 271. 
Kitteridge, Dr. Kendall, his his- 
tory, 265, 303. 
Kittredge, Rev. Charles P., 267. 

Edwin, 224. 
Knowles, Freeman, 212. 
Henry, 193, 206. 

Ladd, Moses, 193. 
Lancaster, Joseph, 220. 
Langley, Philip, 193. 
Lapham, Dr. E. B., 353. 
Leffingwell, Rev.C. R., 255, 257. 
Legro, Joseph, 150, 194. 
Leland, Amariah, 166, 174, 175, 
213. 

Ebenezer, 193. 

Ezra, 192, 208, 209. 
genealogy on, 166. 



INDEX 



367 



Lescarbot, Mare, arrives at Port 
Royal, 3o ; quoted, 34 ; his book, 
49, 351. 
Little, Rev. Daniel, 229. 
Lurvev, Enoch, 225. 
"Hannah, 286. 
Isaac, 217. 

Jacob. 193, 215, 287. 
Lynam, E. T., 342. 
F. C, 169. 
J. S., 169. 

William, 169, 203,207,208, 
209. 

genealogy on, 169. 

Madoekawando, Penobscot chief, 
his treaty, 72 ; his history, 73 ; 
his daughter's marriage, 68 ; his 
delivery of the prisoners, 76. 
Mails, 210, 300, 301, 307. 
Manchester, John, 192, 194. 

Thomas, 193. 
Manchester's Point, Indian village 

at, 41, 65. 
Mansell, Mount, English name for 
Mount Desert, 59 ; origin of, 60 ; 
town of, 224. 
Maps of Mount Desert, 358, 359. 
Marcyes, Nathaniel, 193, 242. 
Martin, Clara Barnes, her guide- 
books, 355. 
Mason, William, 213, 305. 

Timothy, 304. 
Masse, Enemond, member of the 
Jesuit colony, 37, 39; his his- 
tory, 51. 
Mayo, Gideon, 167, 192, 242. 
Isaac, 193. 
Jacob, 218, 297. 
Jacob S., 234. 
Joseph, 167, 192, 199, 206, 

212. 
Joshuk, 150, 193, 194. 
McClintock, Rev. Samuel, 231, 

232. 
McDonald, Rev. Alexander P., 

277. 
McFarland, John, 302. 
McKinzey, John, 193. 
Methodist churches, 247-249, 259, 

272. 
MiUiken, Samuel, 192, 268. 
Simeon B., 193. 



Monts, Pierre Du Guast, Sieur de, 
commissioned lieutenant-gen- 
eral of New France, 13, 14 ; his 
character, 15; his expedition, 
21 ; his voyage of 1605, 26 ; 
his return to France, 28 ; his 
monopoly revoked, 34 ; his sale 
of his patent, 36. 

Moore, Jeremiah, 224. 

Joseph, 219, 220, 296. 
Welch, 193. 
William, 218, 220. 

Motives of American colonization, 
7-11. 

Motte, La, mate of the ship Jonas, 
41,44. 

Mount Desert, the island, named 
by Champlain, 23 ; Jesuit col- 
ony at, 40-55; seen by Capt. 
John Smith, 59 ; by John Win- 
throp, 60 ; Indians at, 65 ; 
Thomas Cobbett at, 75 ; Cadil- 
lac at, 80; Colonel Church at, 
90, 93, 94 ; Colonel Westbrook 
at, 95, 96 ; wreck of the Grand 
Design at, 97 ; granted to Gov- 
ernor Bernard, 105 ; Governor 
Bernard's visit to, 107-113 ; first 
settlers at, 114; Governor Ber- 
nard's plans for, 117; Joseph 
Chadwick's survey of, 121, 122 ; 
one half granted to John Ber- 
nard, 127 ; one half granted to 
the De Gregoires, 128 ; divided 
by commissioners, 131 ; early 
settlers at, 142-147, 150-170; 
plantation organized on, 173 ; 
town organized on, 188 ; churches 
on, 229-280 ; summer business 
at, 323-345 ; right development 
of, 345, 346 ; books about, 349- 
360. 

the town of, act of incorpora- 
tion of, 188 ; warrant for meet- 
ing of, 190 ; oath of allegiance 
to, 191 ; roster of voters of, 192, 
193 ; first meeting of, 193 ; ter- 
ritory of, 196 ; proceedings of, 
193-201 ; divisions of, 204, 219, 
223 ; taxes in, 313-317 ; pro- 
ceedings of, 317-319. 

Mugg, the Indian, his treaty, 72, 



368 



INDEX 



Murphy, John, 225. 
James, 237. 

Narrows, The, pound at, 199; 

bridge at, 202, 207. 
Naskeag Point, Colonel Church at, 

90 ; Governor Bernard at, 109 ; 

settlers at, 121. 
Neely, Bishop Henry A., 254. 
Noble, Reuben, 192, 200, 224. 
Norman, George, 150. 
Northeast Creek, settlers at, 162 ; 

marshes at, 176 ; bridge at, 202, 

209 ; mill at, 208 ; school for, 

209 ; church at, 243. 
Northeast Harbor, camp at, 66 ; 

churches at, 273, 276 ; people 

of, 337 ; development of, 338- 

341. 
Norton, Rev. Lemuel, 234, 245, 
246, 262. 
Shubal D., 224. 
Norwood, Joshua, 150, 178, 192, 
194. 
William, 193. 
Johu F., 225, 
Norwood's Cove, settlers at, 150 ; 

skirmish at, 213-218, 296. 
Nutter, William, 150, 193. 

Oath of allegiance, 191. 
Ober, Isaac, 193, 224. 
Joseph M., 193. 
O'Brien, Rev. James D., 258. _ 
Ogden, Gouverneur Morris, 255. 
Osgood, Samuel, 306. 
Otter Creek, 246, 277. 

Paine, Thomas, 213, 241. 
Palmer, Rev. A. F., 261, 276. 
Parker, Silas, 174, 175, 178. 
Parkman, Francis, the historian, 

quoted, 64, 352. 
Pemaquid, 59, 67, 71, 85, 86, 

103. 
Pemetic, Indian name for Mount 

Desert, 40, 65. 
Penobscot, the bay and river, 24, 

37, 75, 90, 92. 
Perkins, Edward N., 273, 274. 
Peters, John, account of, 116; his 

survey, 116, 170, 219; elected 

Register, 195. 



Plymouth, 3 ; charted by Cham- 
plain, 5 ; settlers from, 103. 

Poems of Mount Desert, references 
to, 357. 

Pontgrav^, Sieur de, merchant ad- 
venturer in New France, 21 ; 
associated with De Monts, 16, 
22 : brings supplies to St. Croix, 
26 ; commands at Port Royal, 
33 ; returns to France, 33. 

Port Royal, entered by De Monts, 
22 ; colony at, 28 ; winter at, 
33 ; granted to Poutrincourt, 
35 ; abandoned, 34 ; restored, 
35; Jesuits at, 39; destroyed 
by Argall, 53. 

Poutrincourt, Baron de, accom- 
panies De Monts, 17 ; returns to 
France, 22 ; brings supplies to 
Port Royal, 33 ; voyage with 
Champlain, 34 ; granted Port 
Royal, 35 ; returns to France, 
37 ; his efForts for Port Royal, 
54 ; his death, 54. 

Powers, Rev. Peter, 232, 245. 

PoTvnall, Fort, built, 106 ; visited 
by Governor Bernard, 108. 

Pray, Ephraim, 150, 193. 
Ephraim, Jr., 193. 

Preble, William H., 263. 

Pretty Marsh, settlers at, 150; 
marshes at, 176 ; school at, 203. 

Prime, Mary R., 256. 

Putnam, Gen. Rufus, his journal, 
125 ; his survey, 126. 

Quentin, Father, member of the 
Jesuit colony, 39; returns to 
France, 54. 

Rand, Edward L., 359, 360. 
Reed, Jacob, 192, 194. 

James, 150, 193, 225. 

Samuel, 192, 201, 'ZSl. 

Tyler, 150. 
Rich, John, 192, 224. 

John, Jr., 193. 

Robert, 225. 
Richardson, Abraham, 150, 225. 

Daniel, 206, 212, 231. 

David, 193, 211, 305. 

Elijah, 142. 

Enoch, 193. 



INDEX 



369 



Richardson, George, 193. 
Isaac, 220. 

James, 115, 142, 144, 150. 
178, 177, 178, 192, 194, 
231. 
James, Jr., 231. 
John, 192, 200, 215. 
Stephen, 142, 146, 173-175, 

177, 178, 192, 194, 195. 
Thomas, 131, 142, 146, 173, 
178, 193, 194, 201, 232. 
genealogy on, 144. 
Roads, 201, 202, 317. 
Roberts, Tobias, 302, 324, 333, 
334. 
William, 193. 
Rodick, Daniel, 153, 206. 
Daniel 2d, 335. 
David, 153, 193. 
Jonathan, 211. 
John A., 154. 

genealogy on, 153. 
Romance of American history, 3, 

55. 
Rute, John, 150. 

Salisbury's Cove, 158, 166, 209, 
239, 243. 

Salsbnry (or Salisbury), Ebenezer, 
158, 174, 178, 193, 206, 
240. 
Jabez, 212. 
Stephen, 193, 206, 239. 

Sargent, Paul Dudley, 205. 

Saussaye, Sieur de la, chief of 
the Jesuit colony, 38; at St. 
Sauveur, 45 ; captured by Ar- 
gall, 46 ; his return to France, 
51. 

Sauveur, Saint, Jesuit colony at 
Fernald's Point, 40; its history, 
41-53 ; destruction of, 45, 53. 

Sawyer, Aaron, 193. 

Schools, 203, 317, 319. 

Schooner Head, 41, 169, 345. 

Seal Cove, settlers at, 149, 150; 
school for, 203 ; boundary at, ' 
224. 

Seal Harbor, settlers at, 283-286 ; 
churches at, 275, 277 ; develop- 
ment of. 342-344. 

Seaville, incorporated a town, 223 ; 
act repeg,led, 223. 



Shannon, Mary, 201. 

Ship Harbor (Locust Reach), 

wreck at, 97-99. 
Smallidge, Timothy, 178, 179, 192, 
206, 212. 
Timothy, Jr., 193. 
Stephen, 273. 
John, 342. 
Smith, Rev. Cornelius B., 275. 

Capt. John, names New 
England, 4 ; quoted, 10 ; 
his map, 59. 
Somes, Abraham, 111, 114, 142, 
144, 148, 173, 175, 178, 
192, 194, 195, 203, 231. 
Daniel, 192. 
John, 192. 

genealogy on, 142, 143. 
Somesville, visited by Governor 
Bernard, 1 10 ; settlers at, 144, 
149; road to, 179; landing at, 
179 ; church at, 260 ; people at, 
303, 304 ; development of, 345. 
Southwest Harbor, visited by Gov- 
ernor Bernard, 109 ; surveyed, 
by his party, 110 ; his plans for, 
117 ; report on, 121 ; settlers at, 
150 ; landings at, 179 ; road to, 
179 ; churches at, 231, 235, 249, 
267, 272 ; people at, 306 ; de- 
velopment of, 332. 
Spurling, Benjamin, 170, 201, 214, 
216. 
Enoch, 219. 
Robert, 216. 
Stanley, Enoch, 264. 
Franklin, 222. 
John, 219, 220. 
Peter, 192. 
Samiiel, 170. 
Thomas, 285. 
Stanwood, Benjamin, 142, 147, 
102. 
Humphrey, 242. 
Job, 162, 178. 
genealogy on, 162. 
Stevens, Capt. Joseph Ignatius, 
256. 
Jeremiah, 241, 242. 
Strickland, Rev. Micah W., 265, 

306. 
Sullivan, Capt. Daniel, 175, 211, 
212. 



370 



INDEX 



Sully, Due de, 11. 
Summer resort, the, 323-345. 
Sutton's Island, 214, 219, 220. 
Swett, Rev. Samuel, 238. 

Tarr, Andrew, 142, 145, 192, 194. 

Daniel, 193. 
Taxes, 207, 313. 

Tenedos, the ship, 214-218, 284. 
Thet, Gilbert du, arrives at Port 
Royal, 3S ; member of the Jesuit 
colony, 39 ; his death, 45. 
Thomas, Abraham, 242. 
Leonard J., 301. 
John, 160, 173, 174, 178, 

194, 208, 238. 
John, Jr., 160, 193. 
Nicholas, 161, 193, 194, 208, 
230, 238, 301. 
Thompson, Cornelius, 163, 164, 
192, 194, 212. 
William, 163, 205, 210, 213, 
300. 
Tinker, John, 174. 

Capt. Jonathan, 268. 
Town Hill, 303. 
Treasurer, the ship, account of, 43 ; 

in action at Mount Desert, 45. 
Tremont, town of, organization of, 

223. 
Tucker, Andrew, 150, 192, 195. 

Nicholas, 150. 
Tuell, Rev. Mark, 247. 



Union churches, 252, 262, 267, 

276. 
Unitarian Church, 261. 

Verrazano, voyage of, 5. 

Walker, Rev. Dean A., 229. 
Ward, Benjamin, 150, 193. 
Wasgatt, Davis, 149, 192, 194, 
199, 201, 203, 229, 232, 
243, 244, 260. 
Moses, 206. 

Thomas, 174, 193, 206, 208. 
William, 213. 
Waymouth, Capt. George, 27, 66. 
Wentworth, Enoch. 150. 
Westbrook, Col. Thomas, his his- 
tory, 95 ; his expedition to Mount 
Desert, 96. 
Whiting, A. J., .308, 309. 
Whittier, Rev. Charles, 2G3, 277. 
Winsor, Justin, references to 

books, 6, 63. 
Winthrop, John, 5 ; quoted, 60. 

Young, Elisha, 213. 

Elkanah, 157, 192, 194, 206, 

207. 
Ezra, 156-158, 173, 175, 

178, 192, 194, 195, 201, 

203, 205, 206-208, 211, 

232, 23(i. 
Robert, 193, 207. 



Electrotyped and printed by H .0. Houghton 6f Co. 
Ca*nbridge, Mass., U. S. A. 



«^ ^v<. 



.>■ 



%.<f 



■x^-% 



^^,<^' 



-0- t 









oC^'%. \ 





















«1X 



^-./^. ^-''c/'..-^. 



%,^V^' 






: -<^'%. 









•^- ^\ 



=^^"\J^' 



■i>^ . 






^-./^ '"%- .^ ' 



.■x^' -^ 









;^-l 



= ^ '%,^' :':^V^i''\'= %. ^'' 



.x^^% 



.'■^^■lj^^*. 



v^ ^/" 



'/r??^'% -^^ 









X^"^ r.. 



















-:^^,n:^'' "f. 



■V"-\-s<' . 



.^ °^. 



:^ = o^ ^.■ 



,x^- 



h. A-v 



.<^\ 









■^o^ . 



: u 



..^-^v.o■ 



vV-^ 



.y^.^ *o NO 






^'^'■%. 









.^\\ ,'^"* 

^■^ ^^r:'^ 












<^'' 



x^^' 



j*\>'';4-*-%'"' 



i: 







v'' ../kC>^ -» <^ 



